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PROMOTION  OF  PUPILS 


A PROBLEM  IN  EDUCATIONAL  ADMINISTRATION 

BY 

HENRY  THEODORE  McKINNEY 

B.  S.  Valparaiso  University  1904 
A.  B.  University  of  Illinois  1913 
A.  M.  University  of  Illinois  1915 


THESIS 

Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfillment  of  the  Requirements  for  the 

Degree  of 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

IN  EDUCATION 
IN 

THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


1921 


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in  2016 


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


It  is  only  through  the  co-operation  of  those  interested 
in  the  promotion  of  the  science  of  education  that  studies  of  this 
nature  are  possible.  This  is  particularly  true  in  the  working- 
out  of  our  problem  because  it  involves  such  radical  departure 
from  the  easy-going  traditional  path, 

I am  glad  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  the  teach- 
ers, principals,  supervisors  and  superintendents  of  the  schools 
at  Danville,  pecatur  and  Springfield,  for  the  professional  inter- 
est which  made  possible  the  gathering  of  reliable  data.  The  as- 
sistance rendered  oy  Miss  Sarah  Mark  Imboden  in  compiling  the 
complete  records  of  repeaters  at  Decatur,  deserves  special  men- 
tion. I am  particularly  indebted  to  Professor  B.  R.  Buckingham 
at  whose  suggestion  and  under  whose  helpful  direexion  the  study 
was  begun  and  carried  on.  By  taking  the  initiative  in  gathering 
the  data  through  the  Bureau  of  Educational  Research  of  which  he 
is  the  director,  he  has  made  possiole  the  doing  of  a task  which 
would  have  been  out  of  the  question  for  me  as  an  individual.  I 
am  glad,  also,  to  remember  the  assistance  rendered  by  my  wife, 
Norah  Ferrell  McKinney,  in  the  work  of  tabulations.  All  these 
and  others  whom  space  forbids  mentioning  by  name,  have  contribut- 
ed much  to  make  possible  the  completion  of  this  study  at  this 
time. 


H.  T.  McK. 


. 


■ 


. 


CONTENTS 


Page 


Chapter 

I. 

Introduction 

1 

- 13 

The  Problem,  The  Nature  of 

2 

- 13 

Promotion  Defined 

6 

Theoretical  Basis  for  Promotion 

10 

The  Gifted  and  the  Slow 

12 

Chapter 

II. 

Resume  of  Attempts  to  Adjust  the 

School  to  the  Child*  s Ability 

14 

- 27 

i a.  Change  in  Class- interval  for 

Reclass if icat ion 

Semi-annual 

14 

Quarterly 

18 

Irregular  Intervals 

20 

b.  Changes  in  Methods  of  In- 

struction 

23 

c.  Change  in  Promotional  Machin- 

ery: Burk’s  Plan 

25 

Chapter 

Ill . 

Attempts  to  Find  Causes  of  Non- 

Promotions 

28 

- 42 

Experimental  Studies 

28 

v Remedial  Measures 

29 

- 35 

Mental  Tests 

31 

The  Rochester  Plan 

33 

Purpose  of  this  Study 

41 

Chapter 

IV. 

The  Danville  Experiment 

43 

- 68 

Age-Grade  Distribution 

48 

The  Problem  Narrowed 

52 

Typical  Pupil  Records 

59 

Conclusions 

67 

Chapter 

V. 

The  Decatur-Spr ingf ield  Experiment 

69 

-140 

The  Data 

73 

Age-grade  Distribution 

74 

Over-ageness 

85 

Significance  of  School  Progress 

96 

Promotion  Plan  at  Fault 

97 

Amount  of  Over-ageness 

99 

Table  of  Comparisons  of  amounts 

of 

Re tardat ion 

102 

Chapter  VI.  The  Decatur-Spr ingf ield  Experiment 

(Cont inued) 


The  Non-reoommended  Groups 

105 

Change  in  Promotion  Rate 
Number  of  Pupils  Repeating  in 

109  - 114 

Later  Probations 

115 

Probable  Causes 

117 

Devices  Used 

121 

Effects  on  Scholarship 

129 

Conclusions 

138 

Chapter 

VII. 

Mental  Tests  Used 

141  - 147 

Chapter 

VIII. 

The  Problem  of  Promotions  in  Re- 

lation to  Repeaters 

148  - 164 

Distribution  of  187  Failures  in 
Decatur 

150 

Keyes  on  Repetition 

153 

Smith's  Conclusions 

156 

What  School  Records  Show 

158 

Conclusions 

162 

Chapter 

IX. 

General  Summary  and  Recommendations 

165  - 171 

Chapter 

X. 

Bibliography 

172  - 177 

Chapter 

XI. 

Appendices 

178 

1 


PROMOTION  OF  PUPILS; 

A PROBLEM  IN  EDUCATIONAL  ADMINISTRATION. 

CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTION 
THE  PROBLEM 

General  Statement  of;  How  may  promotions  be  administered  so  as 
to  secure  an  increase  in  promotion  rate  without  lowering  the 
general  level  of  scholarship  for  the  individual  school  system? 

It  has  been  proposed  that  ability  to  do  the  work  of  the  next 
higher  grade  is  probably  a better  criterion  by  which  to  judge  a 
pupil's  fitness  for  promotion  than  the  fact  that  a pupil  has  been 
given  passing  marks  in  the  work  of  the  grade  from  which  promotion 
is  to  take  place.  Our  investigation  is  confined  to  the  proposal 
of  such  a plan  for  advancing  pupils  in  the  elementary  grades  of 
the  public  schools  and  to  the  evaluation  of  this  procedure.  It 
involves  two  rather  distinct  undertakings, - 

(1)  An  endeavor  to  ascertain  to  what  extent 
pupils  in  a typical  school  system,  could 
be  doing,  at  present,  the  ‘work  of  a higher 
grade  with  profit  to  themselves  and  satis- 
faction  to  the  teachers  concerned. 

(2)  An  endeavor  to  determine  the  feasibility  and 
desirability  of  giving  all  pupils  a chance 
to -show  their  ability  to  do  the  work  of  the 
next  higher  grade  as  a criterion  for  advance- 


ment . 


. 


. 

’ 


♦ 


. 


2 


The  Method.:  Through  the  Bureau  of  Educational  Research,  we  se- 

cured the  co-operation  of  three  near-by  city  school  systems  and 
the  plan  proposed  was  tried  out  under  actual  school  conditions, 
for  three  successive  semesters.  There  was  no  deviation  from  the 
regular  routine  of  school  practice  in  these  schools,  except  that 
which  directly  pertained  to  the  proposed  promotional  scheme. 

Schools  Participating;  Superintendent  G.  P.  Randall  and  his 
teaching  force  at  Danville,  Illinois,  assisted  in  gathering  data 
for  the  first  part  of  the  study  and  Superintendent  J.  0. 

Engleman  of  Decatur  and  I.  M.  Allen  of  Springfield,  Illinois, 
and  their  respective  teaching  and  supervisory  staffs,  made  possi- 
ble the  second  phase  of  our  project. 

Time  Covered  by  the  Experiment:  Both  divisions  of  the  experiment 
were  begun  near  the  close  of  the  first  semester  1918-191S,  with 
the  understanding  that  we  should  probably  continue  through  a ser- 
ies of  semesters  but  with  the  further  agreement  that  any  school 
could  end  its  participation  at  the  close  of  any  semester.  The 
schools  of  Danville  participated  the  first  semester  and  the  other 
two  systems  extended  the  second  division  of  the  study  over  three 
successive  semesters. 

The  Nature  of  the  Problem 

The  main  administrative  problem  in  securing  proper 
promotion  of  pupils,  no  doubt,  grows  out  of  the  magnified  sig- 
nificance usually  attached  to  grade  distinctions.  This  problem 
is  complicated  by  the  fact  that  nearly  all  teachers  and 
patrons  have  long  acquiesced  in  the  justice  which  is  claimed 


. 

■ 


3 


for  a practice  which  makes  passing  marks  the  sole  basis  for  pupil 
advancement  through  the  grades.  Faith  in  this  criterion,  it 
should  be  said,  assumes  a condition  of  homogeneity  in  pupils  with- 
in each  grade,  a close  gradation  of  subject-matter,  and  reasonable 
uniformity  among  teachers  in  assigning  values  for  work  done. 
Various  investigations,  however,  have  revealed  that  such  assump- 
tions are  not  based  on  the  facts  of  the  case.  It  is,  therefore, 
the  peculiar  problem  of  the  administrator  to  ascertain  the  facts 
and  to  evolve  an  administrative  procedure  in  harmony  with  them. 

School  Grades;  The  work  of  the  elementary  schools  in  the  United 

1 

States,  has  been  organized  since  about  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  into  a series  of  units  each  of  which  is  supposed 
to  correspond  to  the  amount  of  work  which  pupils  can  do  in  one 
year.  The  number  of  these  units  has  varied  from  seven  as  in 
Kansas  City,  Missouri,  to  nine  as  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts, 
prior  to  1910.  The  eight-unit  system,  however,  was  probably 
common  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  graded  system  in  America 
and  has  become  more  and  more  typical  as  the  years  have  passed. 

It  is  furthermore  assumed  that  these  grades'  involve  work  of  grad- 
uated difficulty  and  that  the  differences  between  consecutive 
grades  are  always  approximately  equal.  According  to  this  as- 


1.  Judd,  C.  H.  The  Evolution  of  a Democratic  School  System. 

p.  18, 

Bunker,  F.  F.  Reorganization  of  the  Public  School  System, 

(United  States  Bureau  of  Education  Bulletin, 
1916,  No.  8)  p.  35. 

Shearer,  Wm.  J.  The  Grading;  of  Schools,  p.  20. 


: 


. 

• 

-• 

• 

• 

• 

4 


sumption,  naturally  the  pupils  are  required  to  complete  the  work 
of  a given  grade  before  passing  to  the  next  higher.  Pupils  are 
taught  in  classes  and  in  order  that  each  pupil  may  be  able  to 
respond  to  the  instruction  given  to  the  group  as  a whole,  children 
of  approximately  the  same  age  and  mental  capacity  supposedly,  are 
classed  together. 

Wide  Variation  Within  Classes:  Scientific  investigations  of 

school  conditions,  however,  have  revealed  that  there  is  wide 
variation  within  the  grades  of  the  public  schools.  Since  the 
appearance  of  Thorndike's  study  (about  ISO?)2  of  elimination, 
the  over-age  conditions  in  the  grades  have  received  considerable 
attention.  Administrators  have  gradually  awakened  to  this  fact — 
not  only  that  there  is  a large  amount  of  over-ageness  in  the 
grades  of  the  elementary  school  but  that  there  is  also  a wide 
range  in  the  ages  represented  in  every  grade.  Age-grade  tables 
showing  this  condition,  are  now  made  a part  of  practically  every 
superintendent's  report.  While  the  per  cent  of  over-ageness  var- 
ies slightly  from  year  to  year  for  any  individual  school,  the 
figures  for  the  schools  in  general,  continue  to  show  approximate- 
ly 30  to  50  per  cent  of  the  pupils  over  age.  This  statement  is 
based  on  the  assumption  that  a pupil  is  over  age  if  he  cannot, 
by  the  usual  rate  of  progress  of  one  grade  a year,  finish  the 
work  of  the  elementary  grades  by  the  time  he  is  15  years  old. 
According  to  this  standard,  over-age  pupils  range  from  one  to 
three  or  four  years  too  old  for  their  grades. 


2.  Thorndike,  E.  L. 


Elimination  of  Pupils  from  School . 


, 


■ 


. 

. 


- 


* 


- 


5 


Not  only  do  pupils  of  a given  grade  vary  as  to  actual 

age,  ’out  the  variation  as  to  mental  age  is  equally  great.  With 
the  development  of  mental  tests  and  standardized  tests,  investi- 
gators have  found  that  pupils  within  the  grades  differ  widely 
and  that  there  is  significant  overlapping**  of  grades  in  the  mat- 
ter of  mental  ability.  That  is  to  say,  grade  lines  are  no  longer 
to  be  regarded  as  indicating  either  the  physical  or  mental  maturi- 
ty of  the  pupils  who  are  being  taught  in  a given  gTade. 

In  a graded  school,  therefore,  the  homogeneity3 4  of  the 
groups  or  grades  is,  at  best,  only  approximate.  This  being  true, 
and  because  the  whole  problem  of  promotion  is  closely  connected 
with  the  prevailing  conception  of  grades  as  indicating  what  a 
pupil  has  finished  of  the  course  of  study,  it  is  advantageous  to 
approach  the  problem  by  regarding  it  as  an  outgrowth  of  our  sys- 
tem of  gradation.  The  problem  is,  of  course,  complicated  by  the 
necessity  and  desirability  of  retaining  class-instruction  and  al- 
so by  the  school's  poverty  in  provisions  for  promoting  hy  sub- 
ject or  otherwise  providing  for  individual  differences  which  are 
known  to  exist  among  pupils. 

The  Administrative  Problem  in  Promotion:  Since  advancement  in 

school  is  a process  of  regrading,  and  since  grades  are  merely  ad- 
ministrative devices,  the  problem  of  securing  such  advancement 
as  will  result  in  a reasonably  accurate  adjustment  of  the  school 


3.  Kruse,  Paul  J.  Overlapping  of  Attainments  in  Certain  Sixth, 

Seventh  and  El gh th  Grades,  ^Teachers  Col- 
lege Contributions  to  Education  No.  92, 
Columbia  University,  New  York) 

4.  Rosier,  J.  J.  "A  Satisfactory  Basis  for  Promotions."  Journal 

of  Education, May  27,1915,  Vol. 81,pp. 563- 
^55. 


. 


. 


. 


. 

' 

. 


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. 

. . 

. 


o 


to  the  child  is,  by  the  very  nature  of  things,  an  administrative 
problem.  This  problem  has  grown  in  magnitude  as  the  years  have 
passed  and  as  the  physical,  social  and  psychological  needs  of 
the  child  have  become  better  known.  "But  few  years  had  elapsed 
after  the  general  adoption  of  the  graded  schools  in  this  country", 

c 

says  one  administrator  , "before  the  question  concerning  the  ne- 
cessity, desirability  and  probability  of  frequent  reclassifica- 
tion within  the  grade  was  made  the  subject  of  discussion."  As  we 
shall  see  later  on,  the  purpose  of  most  of  the  administrative 
changes  that  have  been  proposed  by  superintendents  of  schools, 
has  been  to  allow  for  such  reclassification.  In  other  words,  the 
main  emphasis  has  been  placed  on  the  need  of  a more  flexible 
plan  for  advancing  pupils  whereby  such  progress  as  the  pupil  has 
made  may  be  recognized  and  recorded. 

Promotion  Defined:  In  the  popular  mind,  promotion  has  meant  a 

certain  official  act  of  the  school  whereby  the  pupil  is  reclassi- 
fied as  belonging  a grade  higher  in  the  particular  scheme  of  ad- 
vancement. Promotions  are  granted,  in  most  cases,  as  the  result 
of  the  pupil’s  success  in  making  a passing  mark  in  all  the  sub- 
jects of  the  grade  next  below  that  to  which  promotion  takes  place. 
Thus  a failure  in  one  or  two  subjects  has  had  the  same  effect  on 
the  pupil's  chances  for  promotion  as  a complete  failure  in  all 
the  subjects.  Promotion  as  used  in  this  study,  is  an  advancement 
of  one  step  in  a semi-annual  scheme  of  promotions.  A pupil  in  the 


5.  Young,  Elia  Flagg,  "Grading  and  Reclassification  of  Pupils", 

Proceedings,  National  Education  As- 
sociation, 1893,  pp. 83-86. 


3 


i 

■ 


< 


t 


: 


7 


4B  grade,  for  example,  is  promoted  when  he  has  been  reclassiiied 
as  belonging  in  the  4B  gru.de.  Tnis  is  the  school's  recognition 
of  the  pupil's  ability  to  do  or  to  profit  by  the  work  of  a stand- 
ard which  is  one-half  year  higher  than  4B.  Such  an  advancement 
is  counted  one  promotion. 

A non-promotion,  on  the  other  hand,  is  defined  as  a 
failure  to  classify  a pupil  as  belonging  in  the  grade  next  higher 
than  that  in  which  he  belongs  just  before  the  time  of  general  re- 
classification. 

Advancement  and  School  Marks:  The  promotion  of  pupils  has  usually 

been  closely  associated  with  marks  received  as  a result  of  the 
teachers'  estimates  of  daily  recitations,  of  examinations  given 
on  the  work  of  a certain  period,  or  as  the  result  of  some  combina- 
tion of  estimates  and  examinations.  In  any  case,  parents  as  well 
as  pupils,  are  expected  to  have  faith  in  the  justice  of  the  verdict 
of  these  marks.  In  order  that  parents  may  know  what  progress  pu- 
pils are  making  these  marks  are  periodically  reported  to  them  by 
the  teachers. 

While  nearly  all  parents  still  rely  confidently  on  school 
marks,  during  the  Iasi;  three  or  four  decades  there  has,  no  doubt, 
been  a tendency  away  from  final  exami nations  as  a sole  basis  for 
promotions.  Likewise,  nearly  all  administrators  are  now  favoring 
a more  liberal  standard  than  that  procedure  whereby  "Seventy-four 
with  a good  record  means  failure  and  seventy-five  with  no  better 
record  means  success. " One  of  the  first  steps  »way  from  such 
faulty  practice  was  taken  about  1881  in  Chicago,  when  Superintend- 
ent Georgs  Howland  announced  to  his  principals  that  pupils  would 
i rom  then  on,  be  admitted  to  high  school  solely  on  teachers'  re- 


. 


. 


. 


8 

commendations.  At  the  time,  this  was  doubtless  regarded  by  many 
administrators  as  a dangerous  procedure  that  would  lower  the 
standards  of  the  school,  but,  as  early  as  1895,  the  county  super- 
intendent^  of  Cook  County  in  an  address  before  the  National  Edu- 
cation Association,  characterized  this  procedure  as,  "The  great- 
est official  act  of  his  (Howland's)  long  and  successful  superin- 
tendency." we  shall  see  also,  that  certain  of  the  flexible-pro- 
motion schemes  of  this  period  made  the  teachers'  best  estimate 
the  sole  basis  for  advancing  pupils  from  one  grade  to  the  next 
higher.  The  successful  results  of  such  practice,  have  tended  to 
weaken  faith  in  the  necessity  of  examinations  of  the  old  type. 

This  change  of  sentiment  is  due  partly,  no  doubt,  to  writers  who 

7 

in  discussing  the  theory  of  educational  procedure  have  shown 
the  nature  and  extent  of  the  injustice  which  many  times  grows 
out  of  rigid  examinations  as  a basis  for  promotion.  The  influ- 
ence, however,  of  tradition  on  university  and  college  officials, 
on  public  school  administrators  and  teachers,  and  on  others  hav- 
ing to  do  with  pupil  advancement,  still  complicates  the  problem 
of  promotion  and  renders  ineffective  many  proposals  for  an  ade- 
quate solution. 

Influence  of  Experimental  Evidence:  Some  of  the  most  effective 

evidence  that  we  have  long  been  measuring  pupils  by  instrument s& 


6.  Bright,  Orville  T. 


7.  See  for  example, 

8.  Monroe,  Walter  S. 


"Changes  Wise  and  Unwise  in  Grammar  <*nd 
High  Schools. " Proceedings,  National 
Education  Association,  1895,  pp.  259- 
278. 

School  Efficiency,  by  H.  E.  Bennett,  p.140. 
Measuring  the  Results  of  Teaching,  pp . 1 - 
21. 


' 


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. 


. 


. 

• • • * 

. 


. 

. 

. 


9 

that  did  not  measure,  is  contained  in  such  studies  as  those  of 
Kelly, ^ Johnson*^  and  Starch  and  Elliott. ^ These  studies,  if 
taken  together,  show  that  some  of  the  accusations  against  the 
traditional  methods  in  promotions,  are  well  founded.  Kelly,  for 
example,  concludes  "A  given  grade  or  mark  means  many  widely  dif- 
ferent things  to  different  teachers  when  they  are  rating  pupils 
for  promotion. . The  difference  amounts  to  as  much  as  the  differ- 
ence between  G (good)  and  F-  (fair  minus)  where  the  basis  of 
markings  includes  only  the  steps  P,  F,  G and  E. " He  also  states 
that,  "Seventy  in  one  school  is  more  than  eighty-one  in  another." 
Johnson's  study  in  the  high  school  of  the  University  of  Chicago, 
likewise,  shows  that  teachers'  marks  are  not  always  safe  guides 
as  to  what  pupils  know.  Because  some  teachers  give  high  m^rks 
and  others  give  low  marks,  the  pupil's  report  card  is  at  be3fc, 
a very  inaccurate  indication  of  either  performance  or  ability. 

The  study  by  Starch  and  Elliott  on  the  reliability  of 
high  school  grading,  throws  light  on  the  question  of  close  adher- 
ence to  passing-grade  as  a criterion  for  promotions.  By  means 
of  facsimile  reproductions  of  examination  papers  which  they  sent 
out  to  a large  number  of  schools  to  be  graded  and  returned,  they 
found  that  there  was  such  a wide  range  in  marks  as  to  render  them 
of  little  value.  Out  of  116  replies  returned,  thirteen  teachers 
gave  a passing  grade  of  75;  three  gave  76;  two  gave  a grade  above 


9.  Kelly,  F.  J.  Teachers'  Marks,  (Teachers  College  Contributions 

to  Education  No.  66  Columbia  University,  New 
York)  1914. 

10.  Johnson,  F.  W.  "A  Study  of  High-School  Grades",  School  Re- 

view, Vol.  19,  pp.  16-24,  January,  1911. 

11.  Starch,  D.  and  Elliott,  E,  C.  "Reliability  of  Grading  Work  in 

Mathematics."  School  Review,  Vol.  31,  pp. 
254-259,  April,  1913. 


. 


. ! ■ • 

. 

. 

. ' 

. . 


( 


10 


SO;  one  mark  was  below  30;  twenty  were  80  or  above  and  twenty 
others  were  below  60.  There  was  a range  from  28  to  92  when  grad- 
ing identical  material.  In  the  light  of  such  investigations,  is 
it  not  time  to  question  more  seriously  than  ever,  the  custom  of 
calling  pupils  who  by  chance  or  otherwise  get  75  or  more  on  their 
papers,  qualified  to  pass  on  and  of  requiring  an  extra  term  of  all 
who  probably  as  much  by  chance,  fall  below  passing?  Not  only  is 
there  variation  among  different  teachers  when  they  undertake  to 
grade  identical  material,  but  there  is  a similar  irregularity  of 
marks  when  the  same  teacher  marks  identical  material  at  different 
times.  Knowing  the  inadequacy  of  prevailing  practices  such  as  the 
marking  system,  the  administrator  must  face  the  responsibility  of 
securing  a more  adequate  measure  by  which  to  classify  pupils  so 
that  they  may  be  in  the  grade  where  the  school  will  mean  the  most 
to  them. 

Theoretical  Basis  for  Proper  Promotions:  The  following  princi- 

ples (See  Bennett,  "School  Efficiency",  144)  set  forth  something 
of  the  inherent  nature  of  the  problem  of  proper  promotions. 

1.  "Promotion  shall  not  be  based  on  a single  test  nor 

set  of  tests  given  at  a single  time. 

2.  It  shall  not  be  dependent  on  any  single  sort  of 
measurement  however  often  applied. 

3.  It  shall  not  be  dependent  on  any  purely  quantita- 
tive or  mathematical  grade  or  combination  of  grades. 
There  is  no  10C  per  cent  perfection  in  any  mental 
trait  nor  is  there  any  zero  point  to  be  found  among 
school  children.  Still  less  is  there  any  mathemati- 
cal point,  such  as  75  per  cent,  which  marks  the  dis- 
tinction between  success  and  failure. 

It  shall  be  a gradual  process,  beginning  when  the 
year's  work  begins  and  based  on  every  task. 


4. 


• 

* 

' 

. 


11 


5.  It  shall  be  a co-operative  process  in  which  the 
child  is  consciously  participating.  Definite 
standards  of  efficiency  by  which  the  child  can 
daily  judge  his  own  work,  shall  be  kept  before 
him. 

6.  The  reports  to  parents  shall  be  such  as  keep  them 
fully  aware  of  the  probability  of  advancement  and 
the  means  of  avoiding  demotion.  No  friction  should 
ever  arise  from  the  question  of  promotion. 

?.  Such  can  and  should  be  the  spirit  of  the  school 
and  of  its  relations  to  parents  that  promotion 
would  never  be  thought  of  as  favoritism.  Neither 
teacher  nor  pupil  should  regard  promoting  a child 
as  favoring  him  or  retarding  him  as  a point  on 
which  there  could  be  a difference  of  desire  be- 
tween them. 

8.  It  is  not  the  teacher's  business  merely  to  size 
and  reject,  but  to  detect  and  to  demonstrate  to 
the  pupil  his  deficiencies  and  to  guide  him  in 
remedying  them.  A teacher  who  cannot  locate  a 
pupil's  difficulty  early  in  the  year  and  plan  with 
him  its  remedy,  who  does  not  know  until  the  term 
is  over  that  the  child's  work  is  not  sufficient 
for  his  promotion,  should  not  be  intrusted  with 
the  decision  of  the  matter.” 

A pupil  should  be  placed  in  that  grade  in  the  school 
where  the  school  can  do  the  most  for  him  regardless  of  previous 
records  or  any  other  condition.  As  a rule  this  means,  probably, 
that  he  should  be  placed  in  the  highest  grade  in  which  he  can 
do  credible  work  without  risk  of  injury  to  health.  Repetition  of 
identical  work  of  a grade  should  be  required  of  no  pupil  who  has 
substantially  done  the  work  of  a grade.  If  he  has  not  met  the 
grade-standard  of  his  group  (rapid,  normal  or  slow)  the  subject- 
matter  should  be  adapted. 

"Education  is  not  something  to  be  forced  upon  child- 
ren and  youth  from  without,  but  is  the  growth  of  capacities 
with  which  human  beings  are  endowed  at  birth... What  is 
learned  in  school  is  at  best  only  a small  part  of  education, 
a relatively  superficial  part,  and  yet  what  is  learned  in 
school,  makes  artificial  distinctions  in  society  and  marks 


• 

. 

. 

• 

. - 

• 

’ 


12 


p.ersons  off  from  one  another." 

Professor  John  Dewey, 

"Schools  of  Tomorrow",  p.  2. 

The  Problem  of  the  Gifted  and  the  Slow  Pupils:  In  the  foregoing 

discussion,  we  have  suggested  that  the  problem  of  promotions  is 
made  difficult  by  the  fact  that  we  have  not  found  a suitable  in- 
strument by  which  to  measure  attainment  and,  also,  by  the  fact 
that  the  scheme  of  promotions  must  take  into  account  so  many  fac- 
tors. This  problem  is  still  farther  complicated  by  the  wide  range 
of  intelligence  represented  in  a class  or  a school.  As  yet,  the 
administrators  have  done  but  little  to  properly  provide  for  the 
extremes  of  this  range.  The  school  has  the  responsibility,  for 
example,  of  finding  the  exceptionably  bright  pupils  and  providing 

IP 

for  them  a different  type  of  instruction  from  that  usually  given. 
Gifted  pupils  represent  a type  of  retardation  that  must  be  recog- 
nized in  the  methods  of  instruction  used  and  in  the  promotion 
scheme  followed.  They  probably  constitute  the  most  neglected 
group  in  our  public  schools. 

The  school  is  responsible,  likewise,  for  the  proper  care 
of  the  feeble-minded  and  retarded  children  who  represent  the  bor- 
derland region  of  normal  development.  Of  these  pupils.  Professor 
Munsterberg  in  his  book  "Psychology  and  the  Teacher",  page  237, 
wrote  as  follows: 

"In  many  respects  they  have  the  appearance  of  normal 
children  and  only  a small  distance  seems  to  separate  them 


12.  Whipple,  G,  M.  Classes  for  Gifted  Children,  also, 

Gillingham,  Anna  "The  Bright  Child  and  the  School. " Journal 

Educational  Psychology , May- June,  1919, 
Vol . 10,  pp.  237-252. 


13 


from  the  stupid,  the  naughty, -or  lazy  children  whom 
every  teacher  has  to  find  at  the  foot  of  her  class. 

Yet  careful  observation  cannot  overlook  the  mental  ab- 
normality of  certain  pupils  whose  lack  of  mental  power 
does  not  demand  that  they  be  classed  as  imbeciles. 

Their  attention  cannot  adapt  itself,  their  perception 
is  defective,  their  memory  is  uncertain,  their  associa- 
tions are  slow  and  uniform,  their  judgment  is  helpless, 
and  their  feelings  are  utterly  unstable,  their  in- 
stincts usually  impulsive  and  generally  their  bodies 
show  disabilities. 

"Such  children  must  be  recognized  as  unfit  for 
instruction  (in  the  ordinary  way)  in  the  public  schools. 

If  their  presence  in  the  schoolroom  is  ignored,  they 
themselves  must  from  year  to  year  have  less  chance  of 
becoming  useful  members  of  the  community.  They  sink 
down  through  their  inability  to  follow,  become  utterly 
discouraged,  and  do  not  profit  at  all  from  the  school. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  teacher  does  adjust  the  in- 
struction to  their  inferior  psychical  make-up,  the 
whole  class  i3  held  back  unfairly.” 

In  this  connection,  however,  it  has  been  shown  recently 
that  this  special  promotion  problem  of  exceptional  children  may 
be  simplified  by  means  of  mental  tests.  It  has  been  found,  for 
example,  that  "Children  who  test  low,  are  very  slow  to  learn  to 
read.  They  have  little  initiative.  What  they  appear  to  learn 
one  day  is  not  retained  to  the  next.  Much  drill  and  repetition 
is  necessary.  Their  reading  is  marked  by  a tendency  to  name 
words  without  thought  of  the  meaning. " This  suggests  the  need  of 
mental  tests  in  the  schools  and  that  "A  special  course  of  study 
should  be  given  children  who  show  serious  mental  retardation. 

They  should  be  led  up  through  their  school  course  according  to 
their  capacities  and  needs  rather  than  according  to  formal  grade 
standards.  " 13 


13.  Dickson,  Virgil  E.  "What  First  Grade  Children  Can  do  in 

School,  as  Related  to  What  is  Known  by 
Mental  Tests."  Journal  Educational  Re- 
search, J une , 1 920,  YoT,  2,  pp.  475- 1F0 . 


14 


CHAPTER  II 

RESUME  OF  ATTEMPTS  TO  ADJUST  THE  SCHOOL  TO  THE  CHILD'S  ABILITY 

(How  Administrators  Have  Interpreted  The  Problem  and  What  Has 
Been  Done  To  Remedy  Improper  Classification) 

In  this  chapter  and  the  next  following,  are  brief  dis- 
cussions which  are  intended  to  show  something  of  how  the  problem 
of  promotions  has  been  interpreted  and  what  solutions  have  been 
proposed.  Chapter  II  is  an  abbreviated  account  of  various  at- 
tempts that  have  been  made  to  adjust  the  organization  of  the 
school  to  the  individual  pupil.  These  attempts  are  discussed 
under  three  headings:  (a)  Changes  in  Class-interval  for  Reclassi- 
fication, (b)  Changes  Affecting  Methods,  and  (c)  Complete  Change 
in  Promotional  Machinery. 

a.  Change  in  Class-interval  for  Reclassification. 

The  first  departure  from  the  original  scheme  of  annual 
promotions  in  our  graded  schools,  was  to  reduce  the  interval  be- 
tween the  times  of  general  reclassification.  The  short  intervals 
in  use  in  the  various  public  schools  are  the  semester,  the  quarter 
and  irregular  intervals. 

Semi-annual  Promotions. 

Arguments  For  and  Against:  At  present  one  of  the  most  popular 

administrative  units  is  the  semester.  By  allowing  for  a reclassi- 
fication of  all  pupils  twice  a year  instead  of  annually  as  first 
practiced,  the  pupils  who  are  required  to  repeat  a grade  do  not 
need  to  lose  a whole  year,  and  a shorter  step  is  provided  for 


‘ 


' 


. 


. 


■ 


_ 


. 

. 


15 


pupil 8 who  may  be  allowed  to  gain  time.  That  this  plan  is  popular, 
is  evidenced  by  the  annual  school  reports  which  show  that  practi- 
cally all  of  the  large  systems  and  many  small  ones  are  now  organ- 

14 

ized  on  the  semester  basis.  This  plan  has  its  opponents  , how- 
ever, who  contend  that  such  an  organization  makes  sixteen  instead 
of  eight  units  or  grades  and  that  this  breaking  up  of  the  year's 
work  adds  to  the  administrative  difficulties  by  making  the  dis- 
turbance incident  to  reclassification  more  frequent.  This  extra 
burden  on  the  school,  it  is  claimed,  is  not  sufficiently  justi- 
fied by  benefits  to  the  pupils.  Furthermore,  it  has  been  pointed 
out  that  we  have  no  assurance  that  the  semi-annual  promotions 
really  result  in  a lower  percentage  of  retardation.  Certain  local 
comparisons  have  shown,  as  a matter  of  fact,  that  the  school  using 
annual  promotions  had  a lower  per  cent  of  retardation.  Such  a 
condition,  when  found,  does  not  necessarily  condemn  the  semi-an- 
nual plan  of  promotions,  however,  but  may  be  taken  to  mean  that 
conservative  teachers  are  more  willing  to  give  pupils  the  benefit 
of  doubt,  when  a failure  means  the  loss  of  a year,  than  when  it 
results  in  the  repetition  of  only  one  semester. ^ 

In  1891,  at  the  request  of  the  United  States  Commis- 
sioner of  Education,  Dr.  E.  E.  White  made  an  extensive  study  of 
promotions  and  examinations  in  graded  schools.  He  made  a special 
study  of  class-intervals  for  reclassification  and  from  hie  in- 
vestigations concluded  that  the  half-year  plan  of  organization 


14.  Carfrey,  J.  H.  "Grading  and  Promotion.  " Journal  of  Educa- 

tion April  4,  1912,  Vol.  75, pp.  379-380. 

15.  Ayres,  Leonard  P.  "The  Effects  of  Promotion  Rates  on  School 

Efficiency."  American  School  Board  Journ- 
al.  May,  1913,  p.9. 


16 


has  the  most  advantages  with  the  fewest:  real  disadvantages  for  the 
elementary  grades  with  the  exception  of  the  first  and  second  year3 
where  shorter  intervals  than  the  semester  were  recommended. 

Semester  and  Modified  Subject-Matter:  Some  schools  have  adopted 

the  semester  as  the  unit  for  reclassification  and  have  allowed 
for  further  differentiation  by  varying  the  amount  of  work  expected 
of  different  types  of  pupils.  The  North  Denver1^  plan  made  such 
provisions.  It  provided  a minimum  amount  of  work  which  wa3  re- 
quired of  all  pupils  and  allowed  other  pupils  whose  capacities 
warranted  the  teachers  in  making  such  assignments,  to  have  special 
tasks  and  privileges  such  as  reading  in  the  library  along  the  line 
of  their  own  interests.  This  outside  assignment  was  extended  on 
the  condition  that  it  would  be  withdrawn  when  the  standard  of  the 
regular  work  began  to  wane.  The  pupils  in  this  way  were  led  to 
look  upon  these  additional  opportunities  as  honorable  recognition. 
The  merit  of  such  a plan  lies  in  the  provision  for  working  all 
the  pupils  up  to  capacity  without  advancing  the  bright  pupils  in- 
to classes  with  pupils  much  older  than  themselves.  It  made  no 
provision,  however,  for  the  slow  pupils. 

Semester  Plan  and  Unassigned  Teachers;  Another  method  of  prepar- 
ing the  pupils  for  semester  reclassifications  is  that  of  provid- 
ing certain  teachers,  who  are  not  assigned  to  any  particular  room 
or  grade.  The  duty  of  these  teachers,  as  the  plan  was  wroked  at 


16.  Van  Sickle,  J.  H.  “Grading  and  Promotion  with  Reference  to 

the  Individual  Needs  of  Pupils. " Pro- 
ceedings >N at i o nal  Education  Association, 
1898,  p.  434. 


' 


. 


. 


1? 


Newton,  Massachusetts,  was  to  give  extra  work  to  pupils  needing 
more  attention  than  the  regular  teachers  had  time  to  give  them. 

The  "Double  Tillage  Plan”  : The  most  extreme  modification  of  the 

semester  plan,  probably,  is  what  has  been  called  the  "Double  Til- 
lage Plan",  which  was  worked  out  at  Woburn,  Massachusetts  where 
it  was  followed  from  1694  to  1903.  According  to  this  scheme,  as 
the  name  suggests,  the  pupils  of  a particular  grade  took  a year's 
work  in  one  semester  at  the  end  of  which  period  there  was  a gener- 
al reclassification.  The  pupils  who  could  go  on  and  join  the 
slower  group  of  the  next  higher  grade,  were  advanced  and  all  the 
rest  of  the  grade  repeated  the  work  in  the  second  semester.  In 
this  way  the  brightest  pupils  of  a given  grade  would  be  classed 
with  the  slower  group  of  the  next  higher  grade  during  the  second 
semester.  With  the  exception  of  Keene,  New  Hampshire,  where  it 
was  tried  in  a modified  form  for  a while,  this  plan  was  not  re- 
ceived with  much  favor.  It  proved  to  have  no  special  merit  after 
the  third  grs.de  because  the  work  was  too  heavy  in  the  more  ad- 
vanced grades  to  be  done  at  this  rate  of  progress. 

Following  the  same  line  of  reasoning  employed  in  pre- 
ferring the  semi-annual  to  the  annual  plan,  variation  of  class- 
interval  has  been  the  central  idea  running  through  numerous  at- 
tempts to  find  the  proper  solution  to  the  problem  of  administer- 
ing promotions  in  such  a way  as  to  recognize  and  record  what  pro- 
gress the  pupil  has  made. 


1?. 


School  Committee,  Newton,  Massachusetts,  Report  of  1913, 


18 


Quarterly  Promotions 

l ft 

Advantages  and  Pi a^dvant ages : Dr.  William  T.  Harris,  a pioneer 

of  flexible  promotion  schemes,  while  superintendent  of  the  city 
schools  of  Saint  Louis,  Missouri,  is  said  to  have  been  the  first 
to  base  an  administrative  plan  on  a unit  shorter  than  the  school 
year.  He  first  reported  his  plan  of  quarterly  promotions,  in 
the  school  reports  for  that  city  for  the  years  1871-1873,  where 
he  discussed  the  necessity  of  having  some  provision  whereby  the 
pupils,  especially  those  in  the  lower  grades,  could  be  promoted 
every  five  or  six  weeks  during  the  school  year.  Every  ten  weeks, 
new  classes  were  formed,  but  only  the  pupils  "Who  were  ready" 
were  advanced.  This  resulted  in  having  a large  number  of  classes 
doing  different  work  and  gave  an  opportunity  for  placing  a pupil 
in  the  class  that  most  nearly  worked  him  up  to  maximum  effort. 

In  this  connection.  Dr.  Harris  is  quoted  as  saying,  "Thirty 
classes  between  the  first  and  eighth  grades  are  a possibility  in 
large  schools  in  cities.  That  all  cities  do  not  avail  themselves 
of  this  possibility,  is  one  of  the  most  serious  defects  in  Ameri- 
can supervision." 

Over  against  the  advantages  of  this  scheme  as  worked 
out  in  Saint  Louis,  are  weighed  the  disadvantages  to  the  pupil 3 
of  such  frequent  changes  of  teachers  and  the  inconvenience  to 
school  officials  resulting  from  doubling  the  work  and  confusion 
that  always  accompany  the  period  of  general  reclassification. 

The  teacher  must  know  her  pupils  before  she  can  do  her  most  ef- 


18.  Saint  Louis  Schools,  Annual  Reports,  1869  to  1874. 


. 


19 


fective  teaching.  When  the  pupils  have  to  change  teachers  at 
such  short  intervals,  there  is  danger  that  the  teachers  will 
rarely,  if  ever,  know  the  pupils  well. 

This  plan  of  grading  is  still  in  effect  at  Saint  Louis 
but  the  recent  survey  of  this  system  and  other  reports  that  show 
the  conditions  of  retardation,  lead  one  to  believe  that  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  quarterly  plan  are  counterbalanced  by  certain  dis- 
advantages with  the  result  that  there  is  the  same  general  condi- 
tion of  over-ageness  that  schools  in  general  have. 

Principles:  Some  of  the  underlying  principles  that  are  claimed 

to  justify  the  foregoing  administrative  procedure  are  listed  by 

19 

Holmes,  as  follows: 

1.  Pupils  differ  greatly  in  their  ability  to  do 
the  work  of  the  grades. 

2.  Unless  the  school  provides  for  these  different 
rates  of  progress  by  frequent  reclassification,  the 
bright  pupils  not  being  held  up  to  work  of  which  they 
are  capable  will  acquire  careless  habits,  'while  the  dull 
pupils  being  compelled  to  move  forward  at  a toe  rapid 
p^ce,  will  become  demoralized  and  disheartened. 

3.  The  attendance  of  some  pupils  is  far  more  regu- 
lar than  that  of  others,  absence  being  du3  to  sickness, 
necessity  of  working  for  a living  and  other  causes.  The 
short-interval  favors  pupils  v/ho  fail  because  of  poor 


19,  Holmes,  W.  H,  School  Organization  and  the  Individual  Child, 

p.  27. 


20 


attendance . 

4.  Because  certain  pupils  can  go  at  a more  rapid 
rate  and  because  large  numbers  of  pupils  in  the  upper 
grades  are  constantly  leaving  school,  some  provision 
must  be  made  to  restore  the  proper  quota  of  pupils  to 
teachers  of  the  upper  grades. 

5.  By  this  plan  of  promoting  the  few  brightest, 
rather  than  demoting  the  few  poorest,  a maximum  of 
encouragement  is  claimed  to  result  to  slow  pupils. 

Irregular  Intervals 

Special  Schemes:  Besides  the  semester  and  the  quarterly  plans 

to  provide  flexibility  in  the  administration  of  promotions,  sever- 
al special  schemes  for  advancing  pupils  have  been  tried  out  with 
varying  degrees  of  success.  These  further  modified  either  the 
length  of  interval  or  the  course  of  study  or  both  according  to 
individual  needs.  The  best  known  of  such  plans  include  the  old 
Cambridge 2 ^ (Massachusetts)  scheme  as  well  as  those  of  Elizabeth^ 
(New  Jersey),  Pueblo^2  (Colorado),  Seattle1^  (Washington), 


20.  Cogswell,  Francis  "The  Cambridge  Experiment."  Proceedi ngs, 

. National  Education  Associ^ti on,  1694, 
p.  333. 

21.  Shearer,  W.  J.  "The  Elizabeth  Plan  of  Grading."  Proceed- 

ings, National  Education  Association, 
1898,  pp.  441-451. 

22.  Search,  P.  W.  "Individual  Teaching,  The  Pueblo  Plan. " Edu- 

cation Review,  February,  1694,  Vol.  7, 
pp.  154-170. 

23.  Barnard,  Frank  J.  "Let  Pupils  be  so  Classified  as  to  Allow 

Unrestricted  Progress  or  Unlimited  Time 
According  to  Ability."  (Eight  Years 
with  the  Seattle  Plan)  Proceedings, 
National  Education  Associat ion,  1899, 
pp.  166-167. 


I.  ^ e ' v 


. 


31 


Portland2"*  (Oregon),  Baltimore2^  (Maryland),  Chicago2^  (Illinois) 
and  Mannheim1^7  (Germany). 

Each  of  these  schemes  has  some  characteristic  feature 
but  all  are  alike  in  making  some  provision  for  individual  differ- 
ences in  pupils  in  the  matter  of  school  progress.  The  Elizabeth 
plan,  for  example,  is  distinguished  by  a provision  that  the  teach- 
ers' best  estimate  is  taken  as  the  basis  for  promotions.  Advance- 
ment takes  place  just  when  the  teachers  think  that  the  pupils  are 
ready  for  the  next  grade.  The  Cambridge  plan  and  the  Seattle 
plan,  likewise,  make  provision  for  different  rates  of  progress, 
but  this  is  done  by  having:  parallel  courses  (double  tracks)  which 
allow  pupils  to  take  the  same  courses  at  different  rates  of  pro- 
gress. The  former  provided  two  such  parallel  courses  and  the  lat- 
ter four.  This  allowed  the  bright  pupils  of  the  elementary  school 
to  do  the  work  of  the  course  in  less  time  than  the  slower  pupils. 
The  Portland  schema,  on  the  other  hand,  divided  the  work  in  such 
a way  that  the  pupil  progressed  from  unit  to  unit  at  his  own  rate 
of  progress.  The  pupils  recited  in  groups,  those  doing  approxi- 
mately the  same  work  reciting  together. 

Another  slightly  different  type  of  promotion  plan  is 
one  which  was  first  used  at  Santa  Barbara,  California.  It  is  de- 


34.  Holmes,  W.  H.  School  Organization  and  the  Individual  Child, 

pp.  39-43. 

35.  Cubberley,  E.  P.  Publi c School  Admlni stration,  pp.  300-310. 

36.  Van  Sickle,  J.  H. , Witmer,  Lightner  and  Ayres,  L.  P.,  Provi- 

sions for  Exceptional  Children  in  School , 
p.  40. 

37.  Holmes,  W.  H.  School  Qrganl zation  and  the  Indi vi dual  Child, 

p.  56. 


22 


scribed  by  Professor  Cubberley2^,  as  follows: 

"Three  parallel  courses  of  instruction  are  pro- 
vided for  the  first  six  grades,  each  requiring  differ- 
ent amounts  of  work  and  intended  to  be  suited  to  the 
needs  of  the  slow,  the  average  and  the  gifted,  and  so 
arranged  as  to  tend  to  eliminate  non-promotion  and  re- 
tardation in  these  elementary  grades.  Course  C in- 
cludes the  minimum  essentials  in  the  fundamental  ele- 
mentary subjects  which  are  to  be  required  of  all,  while 
each  of  the  other  courses  includes  larger  amounts  of 
work,  or  a greater  enrichment  of  instruction,  or  both, 

"Instead  of  providing  only  for  the  average  and 
the  gifted,  as  in  the  Cambridge,  Portland  and  North 
Denver  plans,  this  plan  makes  a third  group  for  the 
slow.  Unlike  these  three  plans  though,  it  makes  no  def- 
inite provision  for  the  more  rapid  advancement  of  the 
mere  gifted.  The  important  features  of  this  plan  are 
the  differentiation  of  the  courses,  the  introduction  of 
departmental  instruction  and  promotion  by  subject  in  the 
last  two  years  of  the  usual  grammar  school." 

Not  only  have  the  promotion  schemes  in  the  United  States 

been  considered  by  American  superintendents,  but  those  of  foreign 

countries  have  also  engaged  their  attention.  The  best  known 

29 

European  scheme  is  that  of  Mannheim  , Germany,  It  is  noted  for 
its  "Auxiliary  classes"  to  aid  the  bright  pupils  and  its  "Further- 
ing classes"  which  is  a provision  for  giving  extra  consideration 
to  pupils  who  are  not  able  to  work  at  the  regular  rate — the  rate, 
namely,  which  will  enable  them  to  finish  the  elementary  course 
in  eight  years, 

The  above  outlined  descriptions  are  sufficient  to  in- 
dicate something  of  what  has  been  done  to  gain  evidence  on  which 
to  base  administrative  procedure  in  the  matter  of  promotions. 


28.  Cubberley,  E.  P.  Public  School  Administration,  p.  307. 

29.  Holmes,  W.  H.  School  Organization  and  the  Individual  Child, 

p.  56. 


' 

. 

. 

1 


. 


. 

. . 


23 


These  devices  have,  mainly,  been  confined  either  to  shortening 
the  time  for  completion  of  the  elementary  course  or  to  varying 
the  amount  of  required  subject-matter  according  to  ability.  As 
Holmes  (cited  on  page  2 G)  points  out,  however,  "It  is  a signifi- 
cant fact  that  after  &11  these  years  with  the  short  interval  of 
grading, .. there  exists  a large  amount  of  retardation  in  their 
schools. " (page  31) 

b.  Admlni s trati ve  Change  a Affecting  Instructional  Methods. 

Some  administrators  have  attacked  the  problem  of  promo- 
tions by  introducing  some  modification  of  schoolroom  procedure. 

In  addition  to  modifying  the  promotional  machinery,  severed,  note- 
worthy changes  in  method  and  organisation  have  been  made.  These 
changes  are  much  the  nature  of  a compromise  between  class  in- 
struction  and  individual  instruction.  The  Batavia"*^  plan,  for 
example,  which  provides  a "helping  teacher"  to  give  personal  at- 
tention to  slow  as  well  as  rapid  pupils,  has  shown  us  that  much 
may  be  gained  by  supplementing  class  instruction  by  individual 
instruction.  Batavia  continues  to  use  the  annual  promotions  and 
after  fourteen  years  of  using  this  special  feature  of  an  addi- 
tional teacher  in  certain  rooms,  the  author^-5-  of  the  Batavia  plan 
still  enthusiastically  says  that  "all  arrive  on  time  and  there  is 
no  necessity  of  disturbing  annual  class-intervals  and  annual  pro- 


30.  Bagley,  w.  C.  Classroom  Management,  Chapter  IV, 

31.  Kennedy,  John  (Superintendent)  "The  Batavia  Plan  After 

Fourteen  Years  of  Trial",  Elementary 
School  Teacher,  June,  1912,  Vol.  12, 
pp.  449-459. 


34 

motions. " Another  type  of  attempt  that  has  been  made  to  give 

individual  attention  through  administrative  method  is  illustrated 
32 

by  the  Gary  schools.  Here  slow  pupils  have  access  to  Saturday 
classes  as  well  as  to  vacation  classes  where  rhey  may  take  extra 
work  in  their  weak  subjects.  Also,  by  having  the  corresponding 
subjects  of  all  the  grades  arranged  in  the  program  so  as  to  avoid 
conflict  in  the  scheme,  a pupil  who  is  weak  in  some  one  subject 
m»y  be  promoted  with  his  class  and  allowed  to  take  double  work 
in  the  weak  subject.  A 4B  pupil,  for  example,  weak  in  arithmetic, 
might  be  promoted  to  4A  but  he  would  recite  with  both  4B  and  4A. 

Class  Instruction:  In  spite  of  the  various  attempts  to  make  ad- 

justments in  organization  and  methods,  the  question  of  how  to  ad- 
minister promotions  most  equitably  to  the  pupil  and  yet  be  proper- 
ly considerate  of  the  interests  of  the  group,  remains  a perplex- 
ing problem.  Throughout  the  solutions  which  have  been  proposed, 
may  be  seen  a constant  attempt  to  preserve  group  instruction.  It 
is  quite  generally  conceded  that  in  a school  as  in  any  society, 
there  is  as  Boone ^ says,  "Necessary  co-operation  and  mutual  re- 
actions; forbearances  and  conventional  prohibitions  and  privileges, 
in  the  give-and-take  that  goes  along  with  congregate  life."  This 
is  seen  nowhere  more  plainly  than  in  the  schoolroom  when  pupils 


32.  Bobbitt,  J.  F.  "Elimination  of  Waste  in  Education *»,  Ele- 

mentary School  Teacher,  February,  ISIS, 
Vol.  13,  pp.  258-271  (366) 

33.  Boone,  R,  G.  "The  Lockstep  in  the  Public  Schools".  Pro- 

ceedings, National  Education  Association, 
1903,  pp.  408-412. 


. 


. 


. 


25 


recite  together  on  a common  task.  It  is  believed.,  therefore,  that 
school-life  carried  on  as  group-life  prepares  for  the  social  life 
that  the  pupil  will  be  expected  to  live  and  share  as  a citizen. 

This  being  so,  and  also  because  individual  instruction  is  more 
costly,  whatever  we  propose  as  a solution,  must  be  -consistent  with 
some  form  of  class  instruction. 

c.  New  P r omo 1 1 o nal -Mach i ner y , Burk 1 s Plan  For 

Indi vi dual-Progr e as . 

The  most  striking  and  extreme  attempt  to  meet  the  de- 
mands of  the  individual  in  recording  school  progress,  is  the  Burk- 
experiment  now  being  carried  on  at  San  Francisco  Normal  School. 

The  plan  was  initiated  in  ISlb  by  President  Frederick  Burk  who 
maintains  that  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  there  can  be  no  "mis- 
fit" children  but  that  our  schools  like  clothing  may  be  "misfits" 
for  the  children.  In  this  normal  school  there  are  500  to  600 
pupils  of  all  grades  ranging  in  age  from  6 to  16  years.  These 
pupils  are  given  individual  instruction  by  the  "Practice"  teach- 
ers under  aoout  the  same  conditions  that  one  may  find  in  an  or- 
dinary graded  school  except  that  no  distinctly  subnormal  pupils 
are  admitted.  Everything  is  done  to  allow  the  pupil  to  go  through 
school  at  a pace  natural  to.  himself.  Hence,  the  texts  are  re- 
written so  as  to  contain  more  explicit  directions  to  guide  the 
individual  (much  like  a book  for  correspondence  study).  They  con- 
tain a large  amount  of  exercise  materials  which  will  be  used  in 
varying  degrees  by  the  pupils  according  as  some  may  do  a given 
assignment  with  satisfactory  "accuracy"  with  few  or  many  exercises. 


36 


In  this  way  the  more  gifted  pupils  by  displaying  more  accuracy 
in  all  their  work,  will  make  more  rapid  progress.  The  promo- 
tions are  by  subject  and  grade  standards  are  established  on  bas- 
is of  the  lowest  diligent  pupil's  progress.  By  a specially  a- 
dapted  report  card,  a detailed  record  is  kept;  of  the  progress 
of  each  individual,  and  work  that  is  finished  is  reported  in 
appropriate  columns.  This  work  when  compared  with  the  outline 
for  95  days  shows  what  promotion  has  been  made  in  any  subject 
and  at  any  time  in  the  term.  In  the  matter  of  subject -promo- 
tions, it  has  been  pointed  out  that  fifty  pupils  a=.y  have  fifty 
different  "sticking  places"  in  any  one  subject  and  that  pupils 
vary  as  much  in  ability  to  carry  the  various  subjects  as  they 
vary  from  one  another  in  any  one  subject.  This  method,  there- 
fore, would  possess  merit  in  preventing  retardation  by  repair- 

34 

ing  the  weak  places  at  the  right  time,  when  they  appear. 

35 

Other  advantages,  claimed  for  such  an  individual 
plan,  are  that  it  will  "encourage  habits  of  concentration,  self- 
reliance  and  working  at  maximum  efficiency;"  it  will  "avoid  much 
of  the  friction  existing  between  teacher  and  pupil"  and  will 
"correlate  each  pupil '3  work  with  his  main  interest."  This 
plan  of  instruction  i3  said  to  save  as  much  as  70%  of  the  time 


34,  Burk,  Frederick  Every  Child  a Minor  vs  the  Lockstep — A 

Suit  in  Equity,  (Monograph  C San  Francis- 
co State  Normal  School,  1915) 

35,  Washburns,  Carleton  W.  "Breaking  the  Lockstep  in  our 

Schools. " School  and  Society,  October  5, 
1918,  Vol.  8,  pp,  391-402.' 

36,  McGregory,  James  L.  Variation  in  Progress  in  Learning  to 

SpellT  (University  of  Iowa  Studies,  New 
Series  No.  31,  May,  1930,  p»  7)  Prelimi- 
nary Report. 


27 


devoted  to  spelling  by  the  'most  rapid  pupils.  Fnether  the  in- 
creased degree  in  which  these  points  of  merit  are  realized  in 
this  plan  more  than  by  class-instruction,  outweigh  the  disad- 
vantages of  such  a recolut ionary  scheme,  deserves  serious  con- 
sideration before  advocating  such  a plan  for  general  adoption. 


28 


CHAPTER  III 

ATTEMPTS  TO  FIND  THE  CONTRIBUTORY  CAUSES  OF  NON-PROMOTIONS  AND 

REMEDIAL  MEASURES 

Experimental  Studies 


Retardation  Resulting  From  Non-promotion:  Another  type  of  en- 

deavor to  analyze  and  solve  the  problems  of  the  non-promoted 

child,  is  seen  in  the  long  list  of  studies  on  retardation. 

37 

Since  the  study  in  elimination  by  Professor  Thorndike  in  1907, 

hardly  a year  has  passed  in  which  there  has  not  been  made  some 

important  contribution  to  this  phase  of  the  problem  of  proper 

38  39 

pupil-progress.  The  well  known  studies  of  Ayres,  Cornman, 

40  41  42 

Falkner,  . Bachman,  Keyes,  and  others,  have  presented 


37,  Thorndike,  E.  L.  Elimination  of  Pupils  from  School,  (Uni- 
ted States  Bureau  of  Education  Bulletin 
No,  4,  1907) 

38..  Ayres,  L.  P.  "Laggards  in  our  Schools.”  Russell  Sage 

Foundation,  19C9. 

39.  Cornman,  0.  P.  "Size  of  Classes.”  Psychological  Clinic, 

December  15,  1909,  Vol.  3,  pp. 206-212. 

40.  Falkner,  R.  P.  ”The  Fundamental  Expression  of  Retardation.” 

Psychological  Clinic,  January  15,  1911, 
Vol.  4,  pp.  213-220. 

Another  article  Psychological  Clinic, 
January  15,  1911,  Vol.  4,  pp.  1-18. 

41,  Baohman,  Frank  P.  Problems  in  Elementary  School  Admini s- 

tration.  Part  II  on  Promotions,  (World 
Book  Company,  1916) 

42,  Keyes,  C,  H,  Progress  Through  the  Grades  of  City  Schools, 

(Teachers  College  Contributions  to  Edu- 
cation No,  42,  Columbia  University, 

New  York,  1911) 


. 


29 


both  methods  and  facts.  These  have  in  turn  given  impetus  to 
this  whole  movement  to  re-adjust  the  schools  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  so-called  "misfit*’  ohild.  Accompanying  this  line  of 
activity  and  materially  supplementing  it,  the  psychological 

43 

studies  into  the  nature  and  extent  of  individual  differences 
of  pupils,  have  given  the  administrator  a different  conception 
of  the  seriousness  of  the  promotional  problems  and  have  laid 
the  foundation  for  a new  type  of  school  administration. 

Re me di al  Measures 

New  Types  of  Schools:  This  is  seen  in  the  new  types  of  schools 

that  are  found  in  the  various  systems  in  the  United  States. 

Some  of  these  special  schools  are  adapted  to  the  subnormal 
ohildren  who  are  defective  in  body  or  in  mind.  For  example, 
schools  for  cripples,  tubercular,  deaf  or  blind  and  schools  for 
epileptics,  incorrigibles  and  mental  defectives  of  every  de- 
scription. Other  sdiools  are  so  organized  as  to  serve  the  parti- 
cular interests  of  gifted  children  and  those  with  unusual  abili- 
ty in  some  one  line  such  as  extraordinary  talent  in  art.  Pro- 
fessor Cubberley  in  his  text  on  school  administration  enumerates 
twenty-three  such  modifications  of  the  regular  school,  all  of 
which  are  intended  to  serve  some  special  individual  need.  Many 
of  these  special  schools,  like  the  Junior  High  School,  are  the 


43.  Thorndike,  E.  L.  Educational  Psychology.  Briefer  Course. 

Part  III,  p.  331  ff. 


• 

• 

. 

• 

. 

. 


30 


outcome  of  the  administrator's  interpretation  of  the  pupils' 
psychological,  social  or  physical  needs. 


The  Promotion  Problem:  All  these  special  schools  also  are  in 

a very  direct  way  traceable  to  an  attempt  to  solve  some  promo- 
tion problem.  A study  of  the  social  and  intellectual  needs  of 
gifted  children  for  example,  has  led  some  investigators44  to 
maintain  that  for  the  good  of  the  individual,  as  wall  as  for  the 
good  of  society,  pupils  whose  intelligence  quotients  rank  them 
in  the  upper  ten  per  oent  of  a school,  should  be  segregated  and 

given  a special  type  of  pedagogical  treatment.  Likewise,  in- 

45  48  47 

v e st i gat ions  by  Foster,  King,  Crampton  and  others  on 
the  changes  that  come  with  age  and  the  significance  of  the  ap- 
proach of  puberty  have  had  an  influence  by  directing  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  work  of  the  elementary  school  must  be  done 
at  a rate  that  will  allow  the  average  pupil  to  be  ready  for  High 
School  by  the  time  he  is  14  years  old. 


44.  Henry,  T.  S,  Classroom  problems  in  the  Education  of_  Gifted 

Children,  (Nineteenth  Year  Book  of  the 
National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Educa- 
tion, Bloomington,  Illinois,  1930,  Part  II) 
Wallin,  J.  E.  W.  The  Mental  Health  of  the  School  Child,  p. 

427.  Reports  that  in  1914,  twenty-two 
cities  had  classes  for  gifted  children. 

45.  Foster,  W.  I.  "Physiological  Age  as  a Basis  for  Classifica- 

tion of  Pupils  Entering  the  High  Schools. " 
Psychological  Clinic.  May  15,  1910,  Vol.  4, 
pp.  83-88. 

46.  King,  Irving  "Physiological  Age  and  School  Standing."  Psy- 

chological Clinic,  January  15,  1914,  Vol. 

7,  pp,  233-339. 

47.  Crampton,  C.  Ward  "Influence  of  Physiological  Age  on  Schol- 

arship." Psychological  Clinic,  June  15, 
1907,  pp.  115-121. 

Also , Pedagogical  Seminary,  June,  1908. 


. 

- ' 

■ 

• 

. 


A. 


‘ ' 


31 


Differentiated  Courses  of  Study:-  Special  Class:  Because  of  the 

variation  in  the  ages  of  different  individuals,  at  which  these 
significant  physiological  changes  appear,  this  psycho-physiologi- 
cal factor  is  made  one  of  the  major  arguments  in  favor  of  a dif- 

48 

ferentiated  course  of  study  after  the  sixth  grade.  It  is  an 
argument  of  no  less  strength  in  favor  of  discontinuing  the  preva- 
lent custom  of  requiring  certain  12  to  14-year  old  pupils  continu- 
ally to  repeat  the  lower  grades.  If  such  pupils  cannot  do  the 
r/ork  of  a more  advanced  grade,  there  is  no  need  for  further  evi- 
dence that  some  form  of  special  class  would  serve  better  than 
the  regular  class-work.  In  fact,  this  procedure  is  followed  by 
practically  all  superintendents  in  school  systems  that  are  large 
enough  to  have  sufficient  numbers  of  backward  pupils  to  form  a 
class. 


Aid  of  Mental  Tests:  Such  a problem  as  here  indicated,  is  like- 

ly to  be  less  serious  if  recognized  when  it  first  appears.  With 


the  improvement  of  such  administrative  tools  as  mental  tests, 

this  type  of  problem  will  grow  less  and  less  evasive.  If  mental 

49 

tests  were  given  in  lirst  grade,  for  example,  where  about  one- 
third  of  the  pupils  fail  of  promotion,  the  problem  of  remedial 


48. 


Johnston,  Charles  Hughes  The  Organization  and  Administra- 
tion of  Secondary  Education"  (A  Report 
of  the  Committee  on  Administration  of 
High  Schools  of  the  National  Commission 
on  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education 
of  the  National  Education  Association; 
edited  by  the  Chairman,  1917)  Unpub- 
ii  shed. 

"The  Use  of  Intelligence  Tests  in  the  Grad- 
ing of  School  Children. " Journal  of 
Educational  Rasear oh, 

Vol.  1,  pp.  20-32. 


49.  Ter man,  Lewis  M. 


. 


• 

. 

...  .,1 


33 


measures  for  retardation  might  be  simplified,  by  adapting  the 

type  of  subject-matter  and  the  methods  to  the  capabilities  of 

the  children.  Then  by  repeating  these  mental  tests  every  two 

years,  say,  the  teacher  may  have  something  more  than  mere  "esti- 

50 

mate”  to  guide  her.  Such  a procedure,  however,  would  necessi- 
tate further  improvement  in  the  matter  of  "Group  Tests"  for 

primary  as  well  as  for  more  advanced  pupils.  As  yet,  we  have 

51 

barely  begun  to  develop  group  tests  of  this  kind  , but  we  have 

gone  far  enough  to  know  that  these  measures  of  intelligence  are 

useful  in  throwing  into  bold  relief  the  enormous  differences  in 

intelligence  in  any  group  of  children  of  a given  age  or  grade, 

52 

and  that  mental  tests  are  much  better  than  mere  opinion  of  par- 

53 

ents  and  teachers.  Professor  Terman  recommends  that  all  pupils 
of  the  first  two  or  three  grades,  be  given  individual  examination 
and  that  all  pupils  above  the  third  grade  should  be  given  group 
tests  at  least  every  other  year.  The  results  of  these  tests,  he 
says,  if  particularly  high  or  low,  should  be  checked  by  an  in- 
dividual test  such  as  the  Binet.  In  regard  to  the  place  of  tests 


50*  Pintner,  Rudolf  Mental  Survey,  (D.  Appleton  & Company, 

19181 

51.  Pressey,  S.  L.  and  L.  V.  "A  Group  Point  Scale  for  Measuring 

Intelligence. " Journal  of  Applied  Psy- 
chology, September,  1918,  Vol.  3,  pp. 
350-369.  (See  Cahpter  IV,  p.  53.  At 
this  time  there  was  practically  no  choice 
between  group  tests.  This  test  even, 
had  not  been  well  standardized). 

53.  Thorndike,  E.  L.  "Tests  of  Intelligence,  Reliability,  Etc." 

School  and  Society,  February  15,  1919, 
Vol.  9,  pp.  189-195. 

53.  Terman,  Lewis  M.  Journal  of  Educational  Research  cited 

above,  p.  33. 


. 


- - 


• . %•  C L . 

( 


■ . i 

' . - - 

. 


: 


, i ■ i 


, 


. 


. 


. 

. 


. 


33 


in  school  administration,  he  adds, 

"In  the  management  of  a school  or  a school 
system,  trie  principal  and  superintendent  will  find 
intelligence  tests  an  indispensable  aid  in  the  an- 
alysis of  their  problems,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
these  problems  oannot  be  dissociated  from  the  quali- 
ty of  material  with  which  the  school  works, " 

The  Rochester  Plan:  A noteworthy  type  of  attempt  to  analyze 

school  conditions  in  regard  to  retardation  and  elimination  and 
then  to  seek  out  and  apply  effective  remedial  measures,  is  that 
used  by  Rochester,  New  York,  It  represents  not  only  a sane, 
practical  method  that  any  superintendent  can  follow  regardless 
of  the  size  of  school  system,  but  it  has  the  additional  advan- 
tage of  bringing  home  to  the  individual  teachers  the  important 
facts  of  such  a study  by  enlisting  their  cooperation.  In  this 
way  the  teachers  are  finding  out  facts  about  their  own  pupils 
for  their  own  use  rather  than  for  somebody  at  a distance. 

Through  appropriate  questionnaires,  assistant  superin- 
54 

tendent  O' Hern  gathered  from  the  teachers  of  Rochester,  their 
suggestions  as  to  remedial  measures  applied  after  the  results  of 
the  various  standardized  tests  had  been  reported  back  to  the 
schools.  In  addition,  they  were  asked  to  make  a list  of  the  re- 
medial measures  used  to  prevent  non-promotions,  to  promote  pro- 
gress, to  reduce  over-ageness  and  to  discourage  elimination. 
Superintendent  O'Hern  then  tabulated  the  replies  from  more  than 
800  teachers  replying,  and  gave  back  to  them  the  combined  re- 
sults. There  were  more  than  40  different  - remedial  measures  pro- 

54.  O'Hern,  Joseph  P,  Remedial  Measures,  (An  unpublished  Re- 
port, ISIS) 


. 


V 


. • 


. 

. 


. 


i 


1 


* 


34 


posed  to  prevent  non-promotions,  for  example;  and  this  is  typi- 
cal of  the  insight  which  a teaching  body  has  into  some  of  the 
most  trying  administrative  problems.  The  devices  mentioned  by 
the  largest  number  of  teachers  are,  in  order,  the  following: 

1.  Appeal  to  pride. 

2.  Consult  parents — ask  for  co-operation. 

3.  Call  on  slow  pupils  often. 

4.  Encouragement  and  praise  for  good  work. 

5.  Help  before  and  after  school. 

S.  send  work  home. 

7.  Trial  promotions  with  definite  consideration 
during  trial  period. 

8.  Warn  failing  pupils  early  in  the  term  to  put 
forth  greater  effort. 

9.  Do  not  make  pupils  repeat  unless  repetition 
will  be  beneficial, 

10.  Do  not  let  pupils  become  discouraged. 

From  this  type  of  study  Superintendent  O’Hern  was  able  to  con- 
clude that,  in  case  of 
Elimination- 

"Only  a small  part  of  our  elimination  had  a 
failure  record  or  a poor  attendance  record.  yjQ  must 
conclude,  therefore,  that  there  are  social,  economic 
or  psychological  factors  which  account  for  the  elim- 
ination of  most  pupils.  " 

"We  do  not  find  any  pronounced  dislike  for 
school  in  the  f act s. . . . . The  home  environment  is  the 
most  pressing  factor  in  elimination.  In  some  cases 
the  parents  need  the  help  of  their  children  but  too 
often  the  parents  are  not  thinking  of  the  future  wel- 
fare of  the  child, " 


’ 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


, 


’ 

. . 


35 


Non-promot i ons- 

"The  natural  ra3ult  of  remedial  measures  used 
at  the  right  time  is  bound  to  be  an  improvement  in 
scholarship  and  consequently  an  increased  per  cent 
of  promotions. " 

Need  of  Further  Experimentation 

What  Do  Grade  Lines  Signify?  Various  performance  tests  given  by 

different  investigators,  have  revealed  the  fact  that  there  is 

much  overlapping  in  the  different  grades  of  the  public  schools. 

Chambers  in  a study  of  "Individual  Differences  of  Grammar  Grade 

Children",  found,  for  example,  that  there  is  no  sharp  line  of 

demarcation  between  seventh  and  eighth  grade  performance  on  i- 

dentical  test  material.  He  gave  (1910)  in  addition  to  certain 

physical  tests,  one  test  each  of  cancellation  of  A’s,  addition, 

spelling,  association  of  opposites,  auditory  memory,  and  visual 

memory  to  33  seventh-grade  and  to  the  same  number  of  eighth- 

grade  pupils.  The  per  cent  of  the  seventh-grade  that  were  as 

good  as  the  eighth  grade’s  lowest  performance  is  as  follows: 

Percentages  of  overlapping  Ca  Ad  Sp  A-0  Am  Vm 

of  grade  7 on  grade  8 47  43  55  55  41  53 

Grade  Lines  Not  Reliable  Indices:  From  these  data  Ch ambers0^ 
concluded  that  (page  69)  "Manifestly  an  extra  year  of  school 
life  has  failed  to  produce  any  discernable  improvement  in  the 
traits  tested."  Quoting  again  (page  71)  "The  most  important  con- 


55.  Chambers,  W.  G.  "Individual  Differences  in  Grammar  Grade 

Children, " Journal  of  Educational 
Psychology,  1910,  Vol.  1,  pp.  61-75. 


{ V 


. 


■ 


. . 


....  .. 


C.  . - 


36 


elusion  reached  in  the  comparison  of  the  distribution  of  abili- 
ties in  the  two  grades  is  then,  that  there  is  no  line  of  demar- 
cation between  them.  In  regard  to  every  trait  examined,  the 
grades  overlap  and  in  regard  to  most  traits,  they  are  coexten- 
sive in  their  range.  Hence,  to  assume  that  in  two  school  grades 
we  have  two  distinct  species,  that  certain  (degrees  of)  abili- 
ties are  lacking  in  one  and  present  in  the  other,  that  all  the 
members  of  one  class  are  of  approximately  equal  ability  in  a 
certain  field  and  that  they  are  inferior  in  that  ability  to  all 
the  members  of  the  other,  is,  at  best,  a very  hazardous  guess. 
Indeed,  by  actual  test,  the  poorest  eighth  grade  records  in  addi- 
tion and  spelling  were  surpassed  by  a third-grade  child,  select- 
ed at  random.  Teachers  cannot  afford  to  forget  that  our  school 
grades  do  not  represent  distinct  gradations  of  ability  in  pupils 
but  are  simply  convenient  devices  of  administration  to  facili- 
tate the  handling  of  children  in  the  mass.  The  grades  are  deter- 
mined by  reference  to  more  or  less  artificial  standards,  and  too 
often  do  not  represent  the  real  intelligence,  industry,  endur- 
ance, adaptability  and  other  traits  important  for  education  of 
the  pupils.  It  seems  as  if  ability  in  perception,  association 
and  memory,  when  these  functions  are  tested  on  familiar  materi- 
al, should  be  pretty  closely  related  to  educability  and  should 
be  affected  by  school  progress  to  an  extent  distinguishable  in 

successive  grades,  if  the  grades  really  grade." 

56 

Bonser  from  tests  of  reasoning  ability,  given  to 

56.  Bonser,  F.  G.  The  Reasoning  Ability  of  Children  of  the 

4th,  5th  and  6th  School  Grade s . "Tts aoh - 
ers  College  Contributions  to  Education  No. 
3? , Columbia  University,  New  York) 


’ I - • 


37 


grades  4,  5 and  6,  as  well  as  from  the  combined  results  of  the 
seven  tests,  found  a similar  overlapping  of  grades.  The  tests 
used  include  two  arithmetic,  one  controlled  association,  one  op- 
posites, two  selective  judgments  and  one  intellectual  interpreta- 
tion of  poems.  We  quote  from  his  conclusions  page  SI.  "There 
are  quite  substantial  percentages  from  both  the  lower  grade 
groups  and  the  lower  age  groups  who  are  found  in  the  highest 
quart ile  of  ability  for  all;  second,  most  of  the  groups  of  the 
youngest  25  per  cent  in  each  grade,  show  higher  abilities  than 
the  oldest  25  per  cent  and  sometimes  higher  than  the  median 

ability  of  the  whole  grade. 

5? 

Thorndike  states  that  in  handwriting,  "Individual 
pupils  within  the  same  grade. ...  show  a range  of  difference  much 
greater  than  between  the  fifth  grade  of  the  worst  system  and  the 
eighth  grade  of  the  best, " 

Buckingham' s results  from  tests  given  in  New  York  City 
in  1915,  are  also  significant  evidence  that  school  attendance  in 
a particular  grade  is  not  a safe  guide  to  the  performance  to  ex- 
pect of  pupils.  By  comparing  the  median  performance  of  grades 

c C 

seven  and  eight,  he  reports  overlapping  of  one  grade  on  the 
next  higher  as  follows: 


57.  Thorndike,  E.  L.  "Handwriting",  Teachers  College  Record, 

March,  1910,  Vol.  11,  pp.  82-175. 

58.  Buckingham,  B.  R.  Principles  of  Scale  Derivation  with  Spec- 

i&l  Application  to"  Arithmetic,  Geography, 
History  and  Grammar,  T Third  Conference 
on  Educational  Measurements,  Bloomington, 
Indiana,  1916) 


- 


. 


' 

a* 


. 


■ 


E«3B===aSS=S=======»  ■■■  ■ ■!■■■  ■ — 

38 


Per  Cent  in  Each  Grade  Who  Equal  or  Exceed  the 
Median  of  the  Next  Higher  Grade. 


Test 

?i  on  7 g 

72  on  8j_ 

8^  on  8 

Arithmetic 

38 

36 

28 

Geography 

47 

39 

28 

History 

43 

23 

27 

Grammar 

? 

37 

39 

59 

Dr.  Buckingham  w reports  another  test  of  10  problems  in  arith- 
metic, given  to  4985  children  in  March  and  again  in  June.  These 
tests  show  percentages  of  overlapping  as  given  below, - 


71  0n  7 2 

7i  on  8i 

.7^  on  80 

?2  °n  81 

7 on  8 
2 2 

81  8S 

March 

June 

37.3 

32.2 

25.3 

28.6 

11.3 

13.7 

36.2 

45.5 

19.9 

22.6 

30.0 

28.5 

From  the  reports  of  some  of  these  studies,  it  is  not 
always  clear  whether  the  conclusions  regarding  the  amount  of  over- 
lapping, are  based  on  a comparison  of  the  best  pupils  in  a grade 
with  the  worst  in  the  next  higher  or  whether,  as  in  the  studies 
by  Professor  Buckingham,  they  are  based  on  a comparison  of  the 
performance  of  one  grade  with  reference  to  the  median  of  another 
grade.  In  either  case,  however,  we  have  evidence  of  a large 


59.  Buckingham,  B.  R.  Notes  on  Derivation  of  Scales  in  School 

Subjects, (15th  Year  Book,  National  So- 
ciety for  the  Study  of  Education,  1915. 
Part  I,  p.  33. 


. 


39 


number  of  pupils  in  an  advance  grade  whose  records  are  equaled 

or  surpassed  by  others  in  lower  grades. 

SO 

Kruse,  in  an  extensive  study  of  overlapping  of  grades, 
reports  that  his  findings  support  the  conclusions  of  the  writers 
just  mentioned.  He  reports,  also,  that  when  overlapping  is  com- 
puted on  the  basis  of  the  composite  of  two  or  more  tests  of  the 
3ume  kind,  it  is  materially  reduced.  The  following  table  taken 
from  Kruse’s  study,  sets  forth  the  amount  of  dver lapping  to  be 
expected  when  estimated  by  composites.  It  should  be  noted  that 
his  findings  by  composites  also  show  a significant  amount  of  over- 
lapping. 

OVERLAPPING  OF  GRADES  BY  COMPOSITES.  (Kruse) 

(Per  Cent  of  Each  Grade  Who  Equal  or  Exceed  the 
median  of  other  grades,  upward  and  downward.) 


Composites 

No. 

of 

Test  s 

VI 

on 

VIII 

VI  : VII  : VIII 
on  : on  : on 

VII  :VIII  : VI 

VIII 

on 

VII 

VII 

on 

VI 

Aver- 

age 

Composition 

3 

13.  64 

37.83:24.09:  8.02 

21.38 

24.95 

llTS T 

Trabue 

4 

14.  38 

32.46:31.19:31.89 

31.75 

36.  63 

28.10 

Opposites 

3 

8.57 

24.87:30.49:13.41 

29.58 

28.97 

22.32 

B-C  (Association) 

5 

32.58 

32.63:44.21:36.07 

49.99 

41.40 

39.48 

Mixed  Relations 

2 

39.51 

51.40:41.33:40.35 

39.17 

50.69 

43.72 

Directions 

3 

27 . 38 

31. 67:45.30:29.64 

45.42 

31.98 

35.23 

Visual  Vocabulary 

2 

8.32 

33.48:38.14:11.35 

27,31 

26.81 

20.74 

Arithmetic 

3 

7. 08 

18.13:33,31:13.00 

32,68 

24.28 

31.21 

English 

22 

6.97 

24.86:25.83:  9,68 

23.18 

26.12 

19.44 

Total 

28 

4.58 

19.57:27.74:*  S.37 

24.15 

21.98 

17.73 

60.  Kruse,  Paul  J.  Overlapping  of  Attainment s in  Certain  Sixth, 

Seventh  and  Eighth  Grades,  (Teach ers 
College  Contributions  to  Education 
No.  S3,  Columbia  University,  New  York) 


40 


"The  measure  of  overlapping  in  this  study  is  the  per  cent  of  the 
pupils  in  cuiy  grade  who  equal  or  exceed  the  median  score  of  the 
next  gra.de  or  the  second  grade  above;  or  the  per  cent  of  pupils 
in  any  grade  who  go  below  the  median  score  of  the  next  grade  or 
the  second  grade  below.  The  former  will  be  referred  to  as  over- 
lapping "upwards"  and  the  latter  as  overlapping  "downwards", 
page  30. 

His  significant  conclusion  for  our  use  is  that,  "Our 
graded  school  system  ~s  a means  of  placing  children  according 
to  ability  to  do  the  work  of  the  school  is  not  so  grossly  lack- 
ing as  has  been  suggested  on  the  basis  of  the  overlapping  of  a 
single  nest,  on  the  other  hand,  our  grades  do  not  represent 
distinct  types  of  ability  so  clearly  marked,  off  from  each  other 
that  all  the  pupils  of  a given  grade  are  superior  tc  all  the 
pupils  of  the  next  lo7ver  grade  in  ability  to  do  the  work  of  the 
school."  page  S7, 

While  the  composite  tests  show  slightly  less  overlap- 
ping (granting  that  the  computations  are  on  the  same  basis)  than 
that  shown  by  single  tests,  the  results  in  the  above  table  in- 
dicate that  the  performance  of  one  pupil  in  six,  (17.73  per  cent) 
is  equal  to  or  better  than  the  median  ability  of  the  next  higher 
grade.  In  other  words,  by  whatever  test,  there  is  found  a large 
amount  of  overlapping  on  consecutive  grades. 

With  all  this  and  other  similar  evidence  against  the 
present  practice  of  over  emphasizing  the  importance  and  signifi- 
cance of  grade-line  distinctions  in  the  matter  of  promotions, 
this  is  an  opportune  time  to  apply  such  facts  in  working  out  a 


41 


more  satisfactory  administrative  procedure.  If  the  schools  -re 
to  play  an  important  role  in  training  for  citizenship  through 
social  and  economic  subjects,  we  must  make  it  possible  for  more 
pupil 8 to  reach  the  upper  grades  where  such  subjects  are  taught 
best.  If  the  traditional  custom  of  repeating  grades  as  a result 
of  inability  to  measure  up  to  standards  set  by  traditional  meth- 
ods, is  known  to  be  rarely  attended  by  improvement  in  scholastic 
standing,  we  must  find  some  means  whereby  every  pupil  will  have 
an  opportunity  to  show  whether  he  or  she  can  do  the  work  of  the 
next  higher  grade  as  satisfactorily  as  that  shown  by  the  average 
results  of  the  present  grade.  It  has  been  said,  hi  so,  that 

"what  knowledge  a child  has  already  attained  is  not  always,  nor 

61 

is  it  usually  the  best  criterion  for  advancement." 

Purpose  of  This  Study:  The  best  way  to  ascertain  the  correctness 

of  such  a statement  as  well  as  to  learn  the  school's  possibili- 
ties in  the  light  of  so  much  overlapping  on  the  next  higher 
grades,  is  to  gain  further  evidence  by  experimentation.  To  ad- 
vance the  pupils  faster,  especially  the  brighter  group  of  the 
over-aged  that  drop  out  of  school  early  to  take  up  employment  in 
some  life-pursuit,  we  need  to  work  out  the  details  of  some  pro- 
cedure that  will  allow  every  pupil  a chance  to  show  with  what 
degree  of  success  he  or  she  can  do  the  work  of  the  next  higher 
grade.  This  would  be  a more  defensible  basis  for  promotion  and 

61.  Buckingham,  B.  R.  Promotions  in  the  Schools  of  New  York 

CityI~TAppendix  p,  17th  Annual  Report 
of  New  York  City  Schools,  1915) 


43 


its  merits  should  toe  experimentally  ascertained.  To  propose  such 
a detailed  procedure  and  to  report  the  success  with  which  it  has 
been  tried  out,  is  the  definite  undertaking  of  the  present  body. 


. 

. 


43 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  DANVILLE  EXPERIMENT 

Near  the  close  of  the  first  semester  of  the  school  year 
1918-19,  the  superintendent  of  the  Danville  schools,  in  co-opera- 
tion with  the  Bureau  of  Educational  Researoh  at  the  University  of 
Illinois,  undertook  to  gather  data  on  the  first  phase  of  our 
problem.  The  definite  task  in  this  connection,  was  to  ascertain 
to  what  extent  pupils  of  a given  grade  can  do  school  work  out- 
lined for  pupils  one  or  more  grades  in  advance.  Accordingly,  a 
comprehensive  three-fold  test  of  such  a nature  as  to  involve  as 
little  extra  work  for  teachers  as  possible,  was  planned.  The 
nature  and  purpose  of  these  tests  are  set  forth  in  the  outline 
which  follows. 

As  an  additional  safeguard  against  injustice  lo  the 
pupils  as  a result  of  disturbing  their  work  by  advancing  them  to 
a grade  that  might  prove  to  be  too  difficult,  all  pupils  advanced 
on  the  basis  of  these  tests  were  to  have  been  given  a probation- 
ary period  of  six  or  eight  weeks.  During  this  probation,  they 
were  to  take  the  regular  work  of  the  highest  grade  in  which,  say, 
any  two  of  these  tests  indicated  that  they  belonged.  Such  proba- 
tion, if  successful,  would  thro?/  light  on  the  second  part  of  our 
study  by  revealing  the  shortcomings  of  the  usual  method  of  promo- 
tions, It  would  show,  for  example,  what  pupils  had  been  held 


back  for  some  unjustifiable  excuse  or  what  pupils  are  at  present 
graded  lower  than  they  would  be  if  pupils  were  classified  accord- 


t 

. 


« 

1 : 


♦ 

. 

• 

l 

- 

44 


ing  to  ability  as  expressed  by  mental  age. 

Outline  of  the  Danville  Experiment 


Purpose:  Studies  of  performance  of  school  children  have  empha- 

sized individual  differences  more  distinctly  than  anything  else. 

We  have  grown  accustomed  to  statements,  for  example,  that  fourth 
grade  children  are  as  capable  in  certain  directions  as  some 
eighth  grade  children. ( S3)  Such  statements  raise  a question  as  to 
the  meaning  of  the  grad©  name  as  indicating  what  a child  knows  or 
can  do.  To  gain  information  on  which  one  can  safely  base  an  ad- 
ministrative procedure,  it  is  necessary  to  evaluate  such  state- 
ments in  the  light  of  data  obtained  under  experimental  conditions. 
Because  of  the  light  it  would  throw  on  the  general  subject  of 
proper  pupil  promotions,  we  endeavored  to  learn  here  the  extent 
to  which  children  are  able  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of  the  cur- 
riculum of  a grade  to  which  they  have  not  belonged. 

A-Data  Based  on  the  Curriculum;  We  tried  to  find  out  to  what 
extent  children  who  are  successful  in  their  term  examinations  are 
also  able  to  pass  the  term  examinations  of  the  next  higher  grade. 
This  included  the  elementary  grades  above  the  second.  The  tests 
were  the  identical  tests  given  the  regular  pupils  of  the  respect- 
ive grades.  Opportunity  was  to  be  given  to  every  child  who  suc- 
cessfully passed  the  test  appropriate  for  his  grade  in  any  subject 
to  take  the  test  of  the  next  higher  graa©  in  that  subject,  and, 
if  he  passed  it,  to  take  the  test  of  the  second  higher  grade  and 
so  on  as  far  as  he  could  go. 

(Arrangements  for  the  giving  of  these  successive 
examinations  were  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of 
the  superintendent . He  and  the  teachers  were  to 
bear  in  mind  (a)  that  knowledge  of  the  tests 
should  not  leak  out,  and  (b)  that  when  adminis- 
tered, proper  precaution  against  collusion  should 
be  taken.) 

The  questions  were  made  out  by  a committee  of  teachers  or  by  the 
superintendent.  Eight  out  of  a total  of  ten  questions  were  se- 
lected by  the  pupils.  These  questions  had  been  selected  out  of 


62.  Butte,  Montana  Report  of  a Survey  of  the  School  System  of 
1914.  pp.  74,  81.  Also 

Kruse,  Paul  J.  Overlapping  of  Attainments  in  Certain  Sixth. 

Seventh  and  Eighth  Grades,  p.  67. 


- ■ 


1 

. • 


. 

* 


45 


the  lists  which  had  been  submitted  to  the  committee  by  the  re- 
spective teachers.  The  various  examinations  were  of  the  ordinary 
length  and  were  such  that  the  whole  examination  for  a grade  could 
be  given  In  one  day. 

B-Data  Based  on  Mentality:  If  a child  successfully  passed  not 

only  the  tests  of  the'  grade  which  he  was  just  completing  but  also 
those  of  the  next  higher  grade,  while  we  could  not  say  that  this 
constituted  a complete  reason  for  advancing  the  child  two  grades 
instead  of  one,  it  would  be  at  least  strong  evidence  in  favor  of 
such  action.  His  age  would  need  to  be  taken  into  account  and, 
more  important  still,  his  mental  age  would  have  weight,  for  this 
is  the  really  significant  basis  of  age  for  school  work.  To  obtain 
the  mental  age  it  was  necessary  to  give  mental  tests.  For  this 
purpose,  the  Pressey  Group  Point  Scale  (63)  was  used.  This  type 
of  test  and  this  test  in  particular,  was  used  because  of  the  ease 
with  which  it  can  be  administered  and  because  of  the  high  corre- 
lation which  is  claimed  to  exist  when  it  is  compared  with  individ- 
ual tests.  At  this  time  moreover,  the  Pressey  Scale  was  the  only 
group  intelligence  scale  available  for  use  in  the  grades. 

C-Data  Based  on  Standardized  Tests:  As  a check  on  the  testing 

under  the  above  headings,  standardized  tests  were  given  in  most  of 
the  fundamental  subjects.  The  tests  used  were  the  following: 


Reading: 

Arithmetic: 

Geography: 

History: 

Spelling: 


Monroe’s  Standardized  Silent  Reading 
Tests  (I,  II  and  III). 

Woody’s  Arithmetic  scales.  Series  B. 

Hdhn-Lackey,  Geography  Scale  Step  Q. 

Selections  from  Buckingham 1 s Questions. 

Selections  from  Buckingham’ s List. 


The  papers  were  scored  by  the  teachers  with  the  subsequent  as- 
sistance of  the  Bureau  of  Educational  Research. 


Use  Made  of  the  Standardized  Tests:  If  a pupil  could  equal  the 

standard  of  the  next  higher  grade,  it  would  be  additional  evidence 
that  should  be  taken  into  account  when  considering  his  rapid  pro- 
motion. If  he  showed  by  two  or  more  of  these  tests,  that  he  had 
ability  to  attempt  a higher  grade  of  work  than  the  regular  promo- 
tions would  give  him,  the  superintendent  would  have  an  intelligi- 
ble basis  on  which  to  advance  him.  In  cases  where  pupils  ware  re- 
commended to  skip  a grade,  provisions  were  made  whereby  the  rs- 


63,  Pressey,  S.L.  and  L.W.  ”A  Group  Point  Scale  for  Measuring 

General  Intelligence,”  Journal  of 
Applied  Psychology.  September, 
1918,  Vol,  2,  ppT 250-269. 

(Only  the  tests  Nos,  2, 4, 6, 8 and  10  were  used.  Testing  was 
under  the  directions  of  the  Bureau  of  Educational  Research). 


. 


. 

; 


. ..  ‘ 


46 


calving  teacher  would  teach  the  subject-matter  which  was  thought 
to  be  prerequisite  to  a proper  comprehension  of  the  work  of  the 
advanced  grade  and  which  the  pupil  had  not  had  opportunity  to 
l6£.rn  because  of  this  extra  promotion.  In  other  words,  the  course 
of  study  was  modified  by  not  requiring  the  pupil  to  take  such  parts 
of  the  grade  skipped  as  would  be  in  substance  a repetition  of  work 
in  the  regular  course  of  the  grade  below. 


Proposed  Program  in  the  Danville  Experiment 


To  provide  for  uniformity  in  the  matter  of  details  in 
the  Danville  experiment,  a definite  program  was  suggested  to  the 
superintendent  of  schools,  as  follows ,- 

January  6-10,  Give  the  Pressey  Mental  Test 
13-17,  Give  Standard  Tests 
30-24,  Prepare  examination  questions  on 

the  course  of  study,  providing  ten 
questions  in  the  several  subjects, 
reading,  arithmetic,  language,  geo- 
graphy, history  and  spelling,  eight 
of  which  are  to  be  answered  by  the 
pupi  1 . 

January  24-29,  Give  the  final  examinations,  as 

usual,  using  the  above  named  questions 
and  following  the  schedule  indicated 
below.  Beginning  with  grade  lb, 
classes  or  grades  are  referred  to  as 
#1  to  #16. 


Schedule: 
January  24, 

37, 

39, 

30, 


grades  5-16,  take  Examination  #1,  corresponding  to 

grades. 

grades  5-16,  take  Examination  #2,  that  of  the  next 

higher  grade. 

those  passing,  take  Examination  #3,  that  of  the  second 

higher  grade. 

those  passing  #3,  take  Examination  #4,  that  of  the 

third  higher  grade. 


This  schedule  was  not  known  to  the  pupils  and  when  they 
took  a second  or  a third  examination,  they  did  not  know  that  the 
questions  had  been  submitted  to  another  grade.  All  examinations 
after  the  first  were  to  be  unannounced.  Because  of  the  large 
numbers  that  would  pass  the  examination  No.  1,  some  provision  had 
to  be  made  whereby  these  pupils  could  work  together  in  the  second 


TABLE  I.  AGE-GRADE  DISTRIBUTION,  GRADES  3B  to  8a,  Danville  (111.) 


47 


examination  with  those  who  failed  to  pass.  Hence,  all  were  given 
the  examination  of  the  next  higher  grade  with  the  understanding 
among  teachers  that  the  papers  of  the  failing  pupils  of  the  first 
examination,  were  not  to  be  made  a part  of  the  experimental  data. 
The  few  pupils  who  passed  examination  No.  2,  were  given  another 
examination  in  the  same  room  with  other  pupils  who  were  busy  with 
the  regular  lessons.  The  small  number  who  passed  three  examina- 
tions made  it  possible  to  collect  all  such  pupils  from  the  whole 
system  in  one  room  for  the  last  examination. 


Age -Grade  Conditions  in  Danville 


To  show  to  what  extent  the  findings  of  this  investiga- 
tion may  be  regarded  as  typical  of  what  exists  in  children  with 
respect  to  grade  schools  in  general  and  because  a treatment  of 
the  promotion  problem  involves  a discussion  of  age,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  make  a stuay  of  the  age-grade  conditions  of  this  system. 

The  effectiveness  of  any  scheme  of  promotion,  also,  is  reflected 
in  an  age-grade  distribution.  Table  I shows  these  data  for  the 
grades  included  in  the  Danville  study.  According  to  this  table, 

231  of  the  2002  pupils  reported,  were  in  grade  3B.  Of  this  number, 
one  was  only  6^  years  old,  three  were  7,  and  49  were  ?-£  years  old. 
By  adding  these  numbers,  one  finds  that  53  of  the  3B  pupils  were 
young  for  this  grade.  In  like  manner  the  number  of  pupils  in  this 
grade  at  the  ages  8,  8^  or  9 years  (At-age),  is  the  total  of  68, 

3S  and  18.  The  number  of  over-age  pupils  is  shown  for  each  grade 
accordingly  as  the  number  increases  by  lowering  the  age  at  which 
the  work  of  the  elementary  school  is  supposed  to  be  finished.  If 
we  regard  14  as  the  age  which  represents  the  line  between  over- 
ageness and  "at  age"  for  the  completion  of  the  elementary  course, 
110  pupils  in  3B  or  47.6  per  cent  of  the  grade  are  over-age.  That 
is  to  say,  this  group  of  110  pupils  will  be  too  old  for  the  eighth 


1 


49 


TABLE  II.  SHOWING  BY  GRADE,  THE  DEVIATION  FROM 
NORMALITY  IN  DANVILLE  (ILL.)  SCHOOLS 
Up-to-15  Standard 


Years 

3B 

3A 

4B 

4A 

5B 

5A 

6B 

6A 

7B 

7 A 

8B 

8A 

Tot  al 

2 -2j 

1 

1 

<u 

50 

cti 

1 

U 

<D 

li-3 

1 

1 

1 

3 

1 -li 

1 

2 

1 

3 

1 

1 

1 

1 

10 

4-1 

CJ 

J=> 

3 

4 

3 

2 

4 

6 

1 

1 

- 1 

1 

4 

2 

32 

0 - i 

49 

22 

23 

18 

42 

12 

33 

9 

14 

10 

12 

13 

357 

At- 

age 

0 

122 

80 

148 

85 

102 

73 

103 

77 

89 

67 

55 

49 

1050 

0 - i 

13 

24 

29 

25 

13 

30 

20 

13 

17 

10 

7 

7 

198 

i-i 

19 

17 

19 

17 

17 

17 

19 

10 

16 

8 

6 

7 

173 

l -ii 

4 

8 

15 

21 

17 

9 

8 

9 

9 

3 

6 

6 

115 

ii-3 

8 

11 

7 

18 

10 

11 

6 

3 

3 

3 

6 

1 

86 

2 -2i 

4 

3 

6 

1 

7 

2 

1 

1 

3 

28 

<D 

50 

rt 

1 

M 

(D 

•> 

2i-3 

3 

2 

6 

3 

3 

3 

2 

3 

2 

25 

3 -3i 

4 

4 

2 

3 

2 

1 

16 

O 

3^-4 

1 

1 

1 

2 

5 

4 -4j 

1 

1 

2 

4^-5 

1 

1 

5 -5i 

1 

1 

Total 

331 

179 

361 

193 

220 

155 

197 

127 

155 

101 

98 

85 

2002 

Number  Under-age  303 
Number  At-age  1050 
Number  Over-age  649 


50 


DIAGRAM  1.  (DANVILLE  SCHOOLS) 


3B 

HH* 

45?. _ 

'MW/mmm. 

3A 

34 

4B 

45 

W///MW/////, vmm. 

4A 

32 

5B 

35 

5A 

to 

■p* 

1 

1 

1 

1 

6b 

31 

6a 

« 

40 

7B 

w .1 

7A 

45 

a? 

« wmmmmz 

8a. 

46 

All 

52 

1 

1 

1. 

Under-age 
At— age 
Over-age 


TABLE  III.  PER  CENTS  OF  UNDER  AGE,  AT  AGE  AND  OVER  AGE  PUPILS  IN  DANVILLE 


51 


rH 

aJ| 

NC 

O 

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9 

cm 

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CM 

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UN 

PQ 

CO 

n 

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« 

3 

9 

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U\ 

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o 

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9 

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H 

CO 

<- 

CQ 

CN 

d 

o 

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CM 

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<r 

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52 


grade  when  they  reach  the  last  semester  of  the  elementary  course 
by  advancing  at  the  rate  of  a promotion  each  semester.  The  stand- 
ard that  assumes  graduation  by  the  age  14,  is  referred  to  in  Table 
I as  nUp-to-14M  standard.  According  to  this  standard,  62.9  per 
cent  of  the  whole  group  are  over-age.  By  the  "Up-to-14^"  stand- 
ard, only  47.4  per  cent  are  over-age  and  when  judged  by  the  "Up- 
to-15"  standard,  the  one  most  commonly  used  in  reporting  age-grade 
data,  Danville's  retardation  in  grades  III  to  VIII  is  reduced  to 
33.4  per  cent. 

Table  II  gives  the  amount  of  acceleration  or  retardation 
in  terms  of  variation  from  normal  progress.  The  number  indicated 
as  "At-age"  is  found  by  combining  the  three  numbers  for  each  grade 
included  between  the  heavy  broken  lines  in  Table  I.  The  totals 
show  that  303  of  the  3003  pupils  were  young  for  their  gro.de,  1050 
were  "At-age",  and  649  were  over-age.  The  grade  distribution  of 
these  three  groups  is  shown  in  Table  III.  The  same  data  in  round 
numbers,  is  shown  graphically  in  Figure  1.  A comparison  of  this 
figure  with  similar  figures  in  the  next  chapter,  indicates  that 
conditions  in  this  school  are  typical  of  what  is  found  in  other 
schools. 

How  the  Plan  Worked  Out The  Problem  Narrowed. 

The  mental  tests  under  the  supervision  of  Dr.  C.  E. 
Holley,  then  of  the  Bureau  of  Educational  Research,  were  given  to 
all  the  pupils  and  the  teachers  assisted  in  scoring  the  papers. 

The  results  were  afterwards  checked  at  the  office  of  the  Bureau 
and  then  reported  back  to  the  school.  The  standardized  tests  were 


. j 


. 


- 

. 

. ‘ 


. 


. 


58 


teachers  concerned.  What  has  been  shown  to  be  true  of  forty  or 
fifty  pupils  would  doubtless  be  true  of  many  others  to  whom  the 
tests  were  not  given  as  we  had  planned.  The  most  serious  Ques- 
tion for  Danville,  in  this  connection,  is  whether,  instead  of  ap- 
parently attempting  to  make  the  child  fit  the  school,  she  should 
not  find  these  under graded  pupils. 

Unless  such  an  attitude  as  this  is  taken  by  the  school, 
the  ideal  treatment  of  data  gathered  from  these  sources  cannot  be 
realized.  If  schools  are  to  profit  by  mental  tests  or  by  stand- 
ardized tests,  we  must  be  willing  to  be  guided  in  our  administra- 
tive procedure  by  the  findings  of  such  tests. 

What  we  have  said  about  modifying  procedure  in  the  light 
of  available  knowledge  of  the  pupil's  capability,  applies  es- 
pecially to  the  uses  frequently  made  of  standardized  tests.  There 
is  danger  that  administrators  when  comparing  the  median  perform- 
ances of  corresponding  grades  taking  a standardized  reading  test, 
for  example,  ?/ill  be  misled  by  the  fact  that  the  average  or  median 
score  of  a given  grade  is  higher  than  that  of  the  corresponding 
grade  in  neighboring  cities.  Is  it  not  possible  that  high  aver- 
ages are  sometimes  made  by  including  pupils  who  have  been  unjust- 
ly held  back  and  who  would  have  been  classified  in  a higher  grade 
in  the  neighboring  school?  Unless  promotion  is  made  as  a result 
of  finding  by  suitable  tests  that  a pupil  measures  as  good  or 
better  than  the  standard  for  the  next  higher  grade,  it  might  be 
better  not  to  use  standardized  tests  at  all  for  fear  of  encourag- 
ing fictitious  standards.  Standardized  tests,  on  the  other  hand, 
if  rightly  interpreted  may  be  a useful  instrument  in  classifying 
pupils. 


* 

f 

• 

• 

. 

. 

' 

' 

w 

. 

• 

• 

53 


given  under  like  supervision  but  were  scored  by  the  Bureau.  The 
first  and  in  some  cases  the  second  and  third  examinations  on  the 
course  of  study  were  given  but  for  some  reason,  the  other  exami- 
nations of  this  series  were  delayed  until  the  effectiveness  of 
the  plan  was  lost  by  many  of  the  pupils  being  promoted  in  the 
regular  way.  We  were,  therefore,  forced  to  modify  our  plan. 
Accordingly,  this  phase  of  the  experiment  was  narrowed  to  a study 
of  only  such  pupils  as  were  known  to  be  much  too  old  for  their 
grades  or  who  were  found  by  all  three  forms  of  tests  to  be  capa- 
ble of  doing  more  advanced  work.  This  resulted  in  »n  extra  pro- 
motion for  fifty  pupils  who  either  because  of  extreme  over-ageness 
or  favorable  record,  were  put  on  probation  in  an  advanced  grade. 
The  distribution  and  records  of  subsequent  progress  of  these 
pupils  are  shown  in  Table  IV. 


i 

■ 


' 


. 


54 


TABLE  IV.  THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  50  PUPILS  (IN  DANVILLE  SCHOOLS) 
WHO  WERE  DOUBLY  PROMOTED  AND  THE  LOCATION  OF  THESE 
PUPILS  AFTER  A LAPSE  OF  THREE  SEMESTERS. 


Grade 

No. 

Doubly 

Promoted 

No.  Who 

Afterwards 

Withdrew 

Present 
Grade  After 
Three  Sem- 
esters 

Status  in  Present  Grade 
No.  of  Pupils  in: 

5B  5A 

6B 

Low 

i:  2nd 

J:3rd  J:high  J 

3B 

8 

8 

8 

3A 

2 

2 

3 

4B 

38 

8 

3a 

38 

2 

28 

4A 

2 

1 

1 

1 

Total 

50 

9 

8 4 

39 

1 

2 

38 

a.  See  record  of  No.  4,  p.  61  and  No.  30,  p.  64 


From  this  Table  one  sees  that  9 of  the  50  pupils  who  were  doubly 
promoted,  have  withdrawn  from  school.  Following  up  these  pupils 
individually,  we  find  that  8 of  this  number  have  moved  out  of 
the  district  but  were  doing  a high  grade  of  work  when  they  moved. 
One  dropped  school  on  account  of  sickness.  Of  the  41  pupils  who 
remained  in  school,  one  is  doing  poor  work,  two  are  doing  fair 
work  and  38  are  classed  in  the  highest  quarter  of  the  class. 

This  shows  that  in  the  main,  pupils  doubly  promoted  as  these 
were,  may  be  expected  to  lead  their  classes  in  the  advanced 
grade. 


55 


Thirty  of  these  pupils  are  "at  age”  and  17  are  young 
for  the  advanced  grade.  Of  the  other  three  pupils,  two  in  the 
low  fourth  group  remain  over-age  for  the  grade  in  which  they  be- 
long. The  4A  pupil  who  ranked  low  also,  is  over-age  and,  like- 
wise, was  not  selected  because  of  his  brilliant  record. 

The  eight  pupils  in  3B  and  two  pupils  in  3A,  who  were 
given  double  promotion  by  being  passed  to  4B  and  4A  respective- 
ly, were  strong  pupils  who  had  made  normal  progress.  The  extra 
advancement  changes  them  from  the  group  making  normal  progress 
to  the  group  which  is  young  for  the  grade  in  which  classified. 

Of  the  38  pupils  in  low  fourth  grade  who  were  advanced 
to  5B,  seven  were  a half  year  cr  more  young  for  the  advanced 
grade  but  with  rare  exceptions  maintained  themselves  and  were 
promoted  each  succeeding  semester.  Two  pupils  of  this  group 
failed  in  one  of  the  subsequent  semesters  but  without  apparent 
reason  except  that  which  caused  them  to  become  over-age  in  the 
first  place,  namely,  inability  to  meet  the  somewhat  uniform 
standards  required  of  all  pupils  for  advancement,  A more  de- 
tailed account  of  these  two  pupils  is  given  in  later  discussions 
(pages  The  pupils  who  fail  to  make  good  records  in  the 

semesters  following  advancement  of  this  kind,  as  indicated  by 
the  pupils  of  this  study,  are  those  who  are  accustomed  to  making 
low  grades  in  previous  work. 

Treatment  of  Data 

The  data  from  the  mental  tests,  the  subject-matter 
tests  and  the  standardized  tests,  were  all  collected  on  one  sheet 


. 


‘ 


t 


. 


■ 


56 


where  at  a glance,  the  whole  record  of  a pupil  might  be  seen.  A 
copy  of  this  diagnostic  sheet  is  given  in  the  sample  data,  page 
No  attempt  was  made  to  weight  these  tests  and  combine  them. 
The  idea  was  to  gain  from  every  possible  source,  evidence  that 
would  aid  the  administrator  in  assigning  pupils  to  the  grades  in 
which  they  could  work  up  to  capacity  without  detriment  to  health. 
Thus  the  full  data  for  each  pupil  were  laid  before  the  superin- 
tendent or  his  representative.  If  these  data  were  conflicting  as 
to  the  pupil’s  probable  ability,  the  weight  of  evidence  was  the 
criterion  by  which  to  be  guided.  In  other  words,  every  effort 
was  made  to  keep  away  from  a complicated  mathematical  formula 
thus  keeping  each  step  of  the  procedure  within  the  comprehension 
of  every  teacher  concerned.  The  plan  provided  that  if  pupil  B, 
for  example,  showed  unusual  ability  in  the  regular  tests  on  the 
course  of  study,  a high  rating  by  either  of  the  other  tests  would 
be  sufficient  evidence  to  justify  one  in  giving  him  a ohance  to 
do  the  work  of  the  advanced  grade  which  the  combined  evidence 
thus  indicated  he  should  attempt.  If  both  the  other  tests  cor- 
roborated the  findings  of  the  subject-matter  tests,  it  would  be 
further  assurance  that  this  advancement  of  B was  imperative,  if 
the  school  was  to  do  the  most  for  him. 

Too  Conservative  Policy:  As  the  plan  worked  out,  however,  a more 

rigid  policy  was  adhered  to.  A pupil  had  to  show  by  all  three 

of  these  sources  of  information,  that  he  was  capable  of  doing  a 

higher  grade  of  work  than  he  was  then  doing,  before  he  was  given 

an  extra  advancement  of  even  one  semester.  This  policy  rendered 
difficult  the  utilization  of  the  information  which  we  obtained. 


. 

« 


’ 

' 

. ' 


1 


57 


This  conservatism  insures  fictitiously  high  standards  for  each 
grade.  When  pupils  change  from  one  school  system  to  another,  it 
often  enables  them  to  secure  immediate  advancement  in  the  new 
school.  Thus  much  credit  is  supposed  to  redound  to  the  former 
school.  This  is  undeserved  because  it  is  obtained  at  too  great 
a cost.  It  is  possible  to  be  too  cautious  lest  one  should  allow 
a pupil  to  advance  without  showing  the  accustomed  signs  or  tokens 
that  he  is  fully  qualified.  It  might  be  advantageous  for  the 
superintendent  to  ask,  should  not  the  school  seek  out  the  pupil 
who  is  improperly  classified,  rather  than  compel  him  to  take  the 
initiative  and  secure  his  promotion  in  spite  of  the  school?  Is 
it  not  probable  that  the  school  that  aims  at  maximum  rate  of  pro- 
gress consistent  with  reasonable  thoroughness  and  health,  serves 
best  both  the  child  and  society?  Not  only  are  the  exceptionally 
bright  pupils  unduly  retarded  when  they  are  not  worked  up  to  ca- 
pacity, but  many  borderline  pupils  are  also  poorly  served  because 
the  school  "plays  safe"  and  is  too  conservative  to  allow  them  any- 
thing that  cold  figures  do  not  show  to  be  due  them.  This  unyield- 
ing attitude,  no  doubt,  furnishes  one  explanation  of  the  fact  that 
some  schools  have  two  to  four  times  as  many  retarded  as  accelerat- 
ed pupils  when  theoretically  the  two  groups  should  be  approximate- 
ly equal.  (See  Chapter  V) 

Significance  of  Pupil-Records:  The  pupils  shown  in  Table  IV,  who 

were  allowed  to  demonstrate  their  ability  to  do  a more  advanced 
grade  of  work,  have  beyond  doubt  indicated  that  at  least  a part 
of  the  Danville  pupils,  even  when  judged  by  Danville's  own  stand- 
ards, can  do  more  advanced  work  with  equal  satisfaction  to  the 


. 


. 

I .. 

, 


’ 


59 

Typical  Data:  The  proper  procedure,  as  we  view  it,  can  be  shown 

more  concretely  by  taking  sample  data  of  different  types  of  pupils 
and  indicating  what  appears  to  be  the  most  reasonable  disposition 
of  each  case.  The  card  of  pupil  No,  1,  for  example,  is  that  of  a 
pupil  in  Danville,  who  ranked  high  in  all  three  tests.  His  age  is 
not  in  question  and  his  record  shows  that  he  should  have  extra 
advancement  • 

RECORD  OF  PUPIL  NO,  1 (B.  C. ) 

Name B.  C. ....  School  ....  Lincoln. . . . Grade .... 4B. . . . Sex ....  Boy. 

Date  of  Birth 8/3/1909, . . . . Semesters  in  School.....!, 

Semesters  in  Grade 1_.  ....Grade  for  Age ......  43 

Health Good ....Placed  in  Grade 4A.  . . 


A.  STANDARDIZED 

TESTS 

C.  SUBJECT-MATTER  TESTS 

: Score  :Per- 

Rating 

Subject  : Crude; 

Grade  :cent- 

Subject 

; 1 

2 

3 

• 

• 

; ile 

Re ading 

Arithmetic 

Rate 

87 

4B  58.8 

Score 

100 

80 

48 

Comprehen- 

sion 

15.7 

4B  69.6 

Arithmetic 

Language 

Addition 

15 

5B  91,3 

Score 

100 

85 

14 

Subtraction 

11 

5B  83.0 

Multi plica- 

tion 

11 

5B  81,1 

Spelling 

Division 

10 

5B  94.4 

Score 

100 

85 

86 

Spelling 

96 

6B  94,4 

History 

— 

— — - 

History 

Geography 

— 

— — — — — 

Score 

— — 

— — 

— — 

Geography 

B.  MENTAL  TEST 

Score 

— 

— 

18 

Total  Score  . . 

53 

Grade  Standard 

Percentile  . . . 

75.5 

60 


The  above  card,  shows  that  B.  C.  is  a pupil  who  is  "at 
ag e"  (Sf  years  old)  in  the  low  fourth  grade.  He  would  have  been 
placed  in  the  high  fourth.  His  proper  assignment,  however,  was 
determined  by  comparing  his  scores  with  the  standards  of  tests  A 
and  B for  each  grade  and  also  by  the  fact  that  he  passed  the  term 
tests  (C)  for  both  the  low  and  the  high  fourth  grade.  His  mental 
score  of  52  places  him  in  the  seventy-five  percentile  of  his 
group.  According  to  the  grade  standards  for  this  test,  this  score 
indicates  also  that  B.  C.  belongs  in  grade  4A,  His  mental  score 
together  with  the  fact  that  all  the  standard  tests  except  reading, 
place  him  in  grade  5B  or  higher,  justifies  one  in  predicting  that 
he  could  do  creditable  work  in  low  fifth.  This  decision  is  borne 
out  by  the  fact  that  he  passed  the  final  examinations  (C)  for  the 
high  fourth  and  in  spelling  made  a grade  of  86  in  low  fifth.  In 
this  subject,  his  ability  is  such  that  he  should  not  be  required 
to  put  the  same  amount  of  time  on  spelling  that  is  expected  of 
pupils  in  the  low  fifth  grade.  According  to  the  usual  procedure, 
he  would  have  continued  to  prepare  lessons  in  4A  that  called  for 
little  or  no  effort.  He  is  one  of  the  pupils  that  was  allowed 
to  skip  the  upper  fourth  and  who  after  lapse  of  three  semesters, 
is  now  in  the  highest  one-fourth  of  his  class.  Certainly,  the 
school  gave  this  pupil  just  recognition  by  passing  him  from  4B 
to  5B  in  one  semester. 

The  card  of  pupil  No.  4 tells  another  story.  Reference 
to  the  date  of  birth,  reveals  that  this  is  an  extreme  case  of 
over -ageness. 


. 

I 


' 


RECORD  OF  PUPIL  NO.  4 (S.  A.) 

Name s.  A School McKinley.  . . .Grade.  . . . .4B.  . . Sex. . . Boy. 

Date  of  Birth 5/13/03 Semesters  in  School 

Semesters  in  Grade 1_ Grade  for  Age 1QB 

Health Good Placed  in  Grade 4A 


A.  STANDARDIZED 

TESTS 

C.  SUBJECT-MATTER  TESTS 

Score 

:Per- 

: Rating 

Subject 

Crude: 

Grade 

: cent- 

Subject  : 

1 

2 3 

• 

• 

: ile 

Reading 

Arithmetic 

Rate 

57 

3B 

22.33 

Score 

82 

Absent 

Comprehen- 

sion 

8.6 

3B 

25.4 

Arithmetic 

Language 

Addition 

12 

3A 

30.0 

Score 

76 

Absent 

Subtraction 

8 

3A 

20.0 

Multi plica- 

tion 

9 

4B 

50.0 

Spelling 

Division 

9 

5B 

87.8 

Score 

85 

Absent 

Spelling 

64 

4B 

37.9 

History 

— 

— 

— - 

History 

Geography 

— 

— — 

— - 

Score 

— 

Geography 

Score 

B.  MENTAL  TEST 

Total  score  . . 

17 

Grade  Standard 

3B 

Percentile  . . 

10 

This  boy  is  older  than  many  sophomores  in  high  school. 
He  entered  school  late  and  is  5£  years  retarded  on  the  basis  of 
the  up-to-14  standard.  The  record,  however,  indicates  that  he 
has  covered  the  work  of  four  and  one-half  semesters  in  three 
semesters*  time.  In  his  regular  examinations  for  4B  he  made  good 


62 


grades  but  was  absent  from  the  second  test.  The  results  of  the 
standardized  test  taken  in  relation  to  the  results  in  the  mental 
test  indicate  that  he  is  working  up  to  capacity.  This  pupil,  in 
our  opinion,  should  have  been  given  the  regular  promotion  just  as 
it  was  given  him,  but,  in  order  to  insure  him  the  benefits  that 
are  supposed  to  come  to  all  citizens  through  certain  studies  in 
the  advanced  grades  he  should  be  taught  a modified  and  probably 
an  abbreviated  course  of  study.  The  fact  that  according  to  tests 
A and  C,  he  is  surpassed  by  about  70  per  cent  of  his  class  and 
that  according  to  Test  B,  he  is  already  somewhat  exceeding  his 

mental  limit these  facts  preclude  any  possibility  of  adjustment 

by  more  rapid  progress  than  he  is  now  making. 

The  Card  of  pupil  No.  14  is  somewhat  typical  of  normal  pro- 
gress. 


. 


. 


' 


I. 


Fr. 

1 


63 


RECORD  OF  PUPIL  NO.  14  (H.  L.) 


Name H.  L School McKinley. . . . Grade 4B.  . . . Sex.  . Girl, 

Date  of  Birth 7/4/09.  ...  . Semesters  in  School 7_ 

Semesters  in  Grade 1_.  ....Grade  for  age.....4B 

Health Good ...Placed  in  Grade 4A. 


A.  STANDARDIZED 

TESTS 

C.  SUBJECT- 

-MATTER  TESTS 

Subject  : 

Score 

:Per- 

Subject  : 

Rating 

Crude: 

* 

Grade  :cent- 
: ile 

1 

2 3 

Reading 

Arithmetic 

Rate 

54 

3B 

20.0 

Score 

75 

45 

Corcprehen- 

6ion 

8.6 

3B 

25.4 

Arithmetic 

Language 

Addition 

14 

5B 

78.0 

Score 

85 

75 

Subtraction 

9 

3A 

38.0 

Multi plica- 

tion 

10 

4B 

65.0 

Spelling 

Division 

8 

4A 

76.3 

Score 

95 

85 

Spelling 

80 

4A 

60.0 

Hi  story 

— 

— 

--  - 

Hi  story 

Geography 

— 

— 

— — 

Score 

-- 

— - 

Geography 

Score 

— 

- — 

B.  MENTAL 

TEST 

Total  Score  . . . 

49 

Grade  Standard 

4A 

Percentile  , . . . 

67.2 

H 


entered  school  at  six  years  of  age  and 


has  been  promoted  every  semester.  This  advancement  would  place 
her,  just  as  the  tests  all  indicate  that  she  should  be  placed,  in 
the  high  fourth  grade. 

Pupil  No.  30,  on  the  other  hand,  seems  to  be  decidedly 


64 

subnormal.  Her  fitness  for  promotion  should  not  be  judged  proba- 
bly, by  the  customary  norms  which  theoretically  represent  the 
"average”  child’s  performance.  Tests  A,  B and  C all  point  to  the 
fact  that  this  pupil  is  about  a year  or  perhaps  two  years  inferior 

RECORD  OF  PUPIL  NO.  30  (E,  R. ) 

Name E.  R School Washington. , .Grade, , .43.  . .Sex.  . . Girl. 

Date  of  Birth. .... 3/1Q/Q7 Semesters  in  School 8_ 

Semesters  in  Grade 1_ Grade  for  Age 6B 

Health. ....  Fair Placed  in  Grade "Quit  School" 


A.  STANDARDIZED  TESTS 


Score 


:Per- 


Subject 

Crude : 

• 

• 

Grade 

: cent- 
:ile 

Subject 

: 1 

Reading 

Arithmetic 

Rate 

44 

3B 

11.08 

Score 

30 

Comprehen- 

sion 

5.4 

3B 

11.1 

Arithmetic 

Language 

Addition 

11 

3A 

16.7 

Score 

67 

Subtraction 

3 

3B 

4.1 

Multiplication  5 

3B 

8.3 

Spelling 

Division 

4 

3B 

S.l 

Score 

60 

Spelling 

44 

33 

12.7 

History 

History 

Geography 

Score 

— - 

Geography 

Score 

B,  MENTAL  TEST 

Total  score  . . 

Grade  Standard 

3B 

Percentile  . . , 

C.  SUBJECT-MATTER  TESTS 


Rating 


65 


to  the  average  of  her  class  and  yet  she  is  classified  one  and  one- 
half  years  below  the  grade  in  which  her  chronological  age  suggests 
that  she  belongs.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  mere  repetition  of  a 
grade  is  not  known  to  improve  the  scholarship  of  such  a pupil, 

(See  Chapter  VII)  this  pupil  should  have  been  put  on  probation  in 
the  higher  fourth  grade  and  if  it  was  found  that  she  could  do  the 
work  of  that  grade  about  as  satisfactorily  as  she  did  the  work  of 
the  low  fourth,  she  should  be  promoted  to  the  higher  fourth  grade 
just  as  the  school  had  planned  to  do  if  she  had  remained  in  school. 
The  customary  procedure  in  such  cases,  is  to  juoge  the  ability  of 
this  type  of  pupil  by  the  record  in  test  C and  to  classify  her  as 
non-promoted.  In  this  way,  our  schools  accumulate  a large  num- 
ber of  aver-age  pupils  in  the  lower  grades.  But  few  of  such  pu- 
pils are  materially  benefit  ted  by  the  second  or  third  time  over 
the  work  and  almost  none  of  them  get  a chance  to  come  in  contact 
with  even  a small  part  of  the  new  and  important  matter  of  the  more 
advanced  grades. 


' 


66 

RECORD  OF  PUPIL  NO.  9 (H.  P. ) 

Name H.  P School Wash  ins-con. . . . Grade.  . . 4B.  . Sex.  . Boy. . . 

Date  of  Birth 3/31/08 semesters  in  School 8 

Semesters  in  Grade 2 Grade  for  Age oB 

Health Good Placed  in  Grade 4A 


A.  STANDARDIZED 

TESTS 

C.  SUBJECT 

’-MATTER  TESTS 

Score  :Par- 

1 Rating 

Subject  : 

Crude : 

Gro.de  :cent- 

Subject  : 

1 

2 3 

• 

: ile 

Reading 

Arithmetic 

Rate 

76 

3A  39.89 

Score 

70 

70 

Comprehen- 

sion 

13.2 

4B  51.1 

Arithmetic 

Language 

Addition 

10 

3B  9.6 

Score 

84 

40 

Subtraction 

8 

3A  20 

Multiplica- 

tion 

8 

3B  30 

Spelling 

Di vi sion 

4 

3B  9.1 

Score 

90 

85 

Spelling 

64 

4B  37.9 

Geography 

— 

History 

History 

— 

Score 

— 

— — 

Geography 

Score 

— 

— 

B,  MENTAL 

TEST 

Total  Score  . . . 

Grade  Standard 

4A 

Percentile  .... 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  administrative  problem  in- 
volved, Pupil  No.  9 is  probably  the  most  important  case  that  we 
shall  consider.  This  is  a boy  who  is  one  and  one-half  years  too 
old  for  his  present  grade.  He  failed  in  this  grade  once  before; 
and  after  an  additional  semester  in  the  same  work,  he  is  still 


67 


below  the  standard  of  "75  or  more  in  every  subject”.  His  mark 
in  the  important  subject  of  arithmetic,  is  only  70.  In  his  other 
subjects,  he  is  as  good  as  hal^  of  his  class.  He  is  found  to  be 
mentally  normal,  yet,  he  is  consistently  low  in  one  subject.  If 
we  hold  to  the  customary  procedure  which  requires  passing  marks 

in  all  the  fundamental  branches,  especially  arithmetic,  H 

P will  have  to  repeat  the  lower  fourth  grade  another  se- 

mester when  we  know  that  he  is  a stronger  pupil  than  some  who 
have  been  promoted.  This  pupil's  record  raises  the  question  of 
promotion  by  subjects.  If  our  administrative  machinery  were  such 

(as  in  certain  systems  referred  to  in  Chapter  III)  that  H___ 

P could  be  advanced  to  the  higher  fourth  grade  and  yet  be 

given  an  opportunity  to  strengthen  his  work  in  arithmetic  by  doing 
double  work  in  this  subject,  the  problem  of  promotion  would  be 
much  simplified.  Some  personal  treatment  similar  to  that  suggest- 
ed by  the  Batavia  or  the  Gary  plan,  should  be  used  to  supplement 
class  instruction.  Until  we  readjust  our  promotional  require- 
ments so  as  to  allow  pupils  to  be  measured  in  terms  of  their  own 
ability  and  attainments,  quite  as  much  as  by  that  of  other  pu- 
pils, as  a class,  the  ranks  of  the  retarded  will  continue  to  be 
made  replete  with  pupils  who  are  marking  time  in  four  or  five 
subjects  while  they  are  supposed  to  be  "getting  better"  the  work 

of  one  or  two  subjects.  H P did  creditable  work  in 

the  next  grade. 

Conclusions  Based  On  The  Danville  Experiment 

Unfortunate  interruptions  prevented  us  from  reporting 
the  pupils  for  the  whole  school  system  of  D&nviH8*  who  were  able 


* 

W | : j l 

, * 

. 
i 


68 


to  pass  the  stated  subject-matter  tests  of  more  advanced  grades. 

The  endeavor  was  carried  out  with  a sufficient  number  of  pupils, 
however,  to  show  promising  possibilities  for  a further  study  of 
this  phase  of  our  problem.  Of  the  fifty  pupils  who  were  given  an 
extra  advancement  (on  probation),  practically  all  who  were  ad- 
vanced on  their  scholarship  records,  maintained  themselves  ac- 
cording to  expectations.  Thirty-eight  of  the  fifty  remained  in 
school  is  the  highest  quart ile  of  their  class. 

A composite  report  of  a pupil's  ability  as  indicated 
by  the  marks  received  in  subject-matter  examinations  as  well  as 
by  the  scores  obtained  in  mental  tests  and  standardized  tests, 
furnishes  the  administrator  a safe  guide  by  which  to  recommend  ad- 
ditional advancement  of  pupils.  Of  the  pupils  who  were  given  an 
extra  advancement  in  this  way  in  Danville,  three  out  of  every  four 
thus  advanced,  were  ranked  by  their  teachers  three  semesters  later, 
in  the  highest  twenty-five  percentile. 

Pupils  show  a marked  individual  difference  in  the  rate 
at  which  the  work  of  the  course  of  study  can  be  accomplished. 

Any  uniform  system  of  promotion,  even  if  all  the  pupils  a.re  al- 
lowed to  demonstrate  their  ability  to  do  a more  advanced  grade 
each  semester,  works  a hardship  on  the  rapid  pupils.  The  extra 
promotions  in  this  experiment  were  given  mostly,  to  strong  pupils 
who  had  been  held  to  one  full  grade  a year.  They  showed  that 
they  could  do  the  work  in  the  next  higher  grade  equally  as  well 
as  that  of  their  regular  grades. 


. 

. 

69 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  DECATUR- SPRINGFIELD  EXPERIMENT 
A.  Conditions  in  General 

In  response  to  a general  inquiry  made  by  the  Bureau  of 
Educational  Research  in  the  schools  of  Illinois,  Decatur  and 
Springfield  expressed  themselves  as  interested  in  making  a compre- 
hensive study  of  promotions.  Accordingly,  early  in  the  school 
year  1918-1919,  a conference  was  held  with  the  superintendents  of 
these  schools  and  something  of  the  nature  of  the  promotion  problem 
in  each  of  these  cities  was  ascertained.  It  was  found,  for  ex- 
ample, that  because  of  an  epidemic  of  influenza,  both  Decatur  and 
Springfield  had  the  problem  of  how  to  prevent  the  alarmingly  low 
per  cent  of  promotion  which  seemed  inevitable  and  which,  if  not 
prevented,  would  mean  loss  to  each  system.  The  details  of  what- 
ever plan  might  be  proposed,  therefore,  were  necessarily  and 
properly  limited  to  actual  school  conditions  and  had  to  be  such 
as  could  be  worked  with  a minimum  of  further  disruption  of  the 
year's  work.  A detailed  statement  of  conditions  and  of  the  nature 
of  our  study  are  found  in  this  chapter. 

Details  of  the  Plan  Proposed 

The  detailed  plan  decided  upon  was  the  following: 

1.  The  superintendents  asked  their  teachers  to  make 
two  lists  of  pupils  as  usual,  one  being  those  recommended  for 


, ‘ - L 

. 

•*» 


* • . ' ... 


, P -U 

’ t 


. 

■ 


i 


70 


promotion  and  the  other  those  not  recommended  for  promotion. 

These  lists  were  made  up  before  the  teachers  knew  that  there  was 
to  be  any  change  in  the  plan  of  promotions.  The  only  additional 
directions  they  had  received  were,  in  substance,  that  because  of 
the  unusual  conditions  of  sickness,  if  possible,  more  care  than 
usual  should  be  exercised  when  making  up  the  two  lists.  In  doubt- 
ful cases  this  added  precaution  had  the  effect  of  giving  to  such 
pupils  the  benefit  of  doubt  and  made  the  recommended  list  include 
all  pupils  who  were  able  to  approximate  a passing  mark. 

2.  After  these  lists  had  been  prepared  and  filed  with 
the  superintendent , the  teachers  were  called  together,  the  plan 
was  put  before  them  in  detail,  and  they  were  asked  to  cooperate. 

It  was  explained  that  because  of  irregular  attendance  due  to  sick- 
ness, a better  criterion  for  the  present  at  least,  might  be  to 
pass  every  pupil  with  the  distinct  understanding  with  both  pupils 
and  parents  that  all  would  be  given  a chance  to  show  whether  they 
could  do  the  work  of  the  advanced  grade  and  with  the  full  know- 
ledge that  no  pupil  was  to  be  promoted  if  after  being  given  such 

a chance  for  advancement,  he  proved  to  be  unable  to  do  satisfac- 
tory work.  In  other  words,  the  work  during  the  probationary 
period  of  six  or  eight  weeks,  had  to  be  satisfactory  to  the  re- 
ceiving teacher. 

3.  On  one  side  of  a 5 by  8 card,  (E.R.6,  See  Appendix) 
the  teachers  listed  pupils  recommended  for  promotion  and  on  the 
other  side,  those  not  recommended  for  promotion.  The  information 
recorded  on  these  cards  included  sex,  date  of  birth,  grade,  total 
number  of  semesters  the  pupil  had  attended  school,  the  number  of 


• ' - c&sZ\ t na-oxibs  i zt 

• - • j ■ 

. 

< 

v c •. 

. . 


m 

. 


.. 

. 

• * { 

. 


71 


semesters  he  had  been  in  this  grade  (i.e.  the  grade  of  the  se- 
mester then  closing),  health,  and  scholastic  standing  in  the  six 
principal  subjects.  In  addition  to  the  same  data  for  the  non-re- 
commended  group  in  each  room  and  grade,  a list  of  probable  causes 
of  failure  was  given,  and  the  teachers  were  asked  to  indicate  by 
1,  3,  3 the  relative  strength  of  these  factors,-  1 signifying  the 
principal  cause  and  3 the  least  probable  of  the  three  selected  as 
accountable  for  the  present  failure. 

4.  A second  card  (E.R.7,  See  Appendix)  provided  for 
uniform  reports  of  data  concerning  name,  age,  grade  and  scholastic 
record  of  pupils  during  their  period  of  probation  in  the  advanced 
grade.  This  card  also  contained  a list  of  suggestive  devices  to 
aid  pupils.  The  scholastic  record  included  the  average  standing 
in  each  of  the  fundamental  subjects  for  the  semester  next  preced- 
ing. The  card  also  contained  a weekly  report  by  the  teacher  as 
to  satisfactory  or  un satisfactory  progress.  On  the  basis  of  this 
weekly  record,  the  teacher  made  recommendations  to  the  principal 
and  superintendent  at  the  close  of  the  probationary  period. 

The  eight  devices  suggested  are  those  which,  in  our  com- 
bined judgment  (as  determined  in  our  conf erences) , are  most  fre- 
quently used  by  successful  teachers  to  take  care  of  the  individual 
needs  of  pupils.  The  teachers  were  asked  to  check  the  devices 
employed  each  week  and  to  write  in  any  other  devices  made  use  of. 

The  directions  for  using  the  probationary  card  were  as 

follows: 

"This  card  is  to  be  made  out  by  the  receiving 
teacher  for  (1)  all  pupils  advanced  to  the  next  higher 
grade  although  not  recommended  for  promotion  by  the 
teacher  of  the  previous  grade,  and  (3)  such  other 


1 • .....  i 


( 


. : 


■ 


. 

. 

- 

. 

- 


73 


pupils  as  the  superintendent  may  select.  No  pupil 
other  than  those  not  recommended  for  promotion  is  to 
receive  a card  unless  he  or  she  is  selected  by  the 
superintendent  or  his  representative. 

"Report  by  subjects  in  column  1 to  8 of  Part  I 
using  "S"  for  satisfactory  and  "U"  for  unsatisfactory. 

Under  "R"  enter  pupil’s  final  ratings  in  the  previous 
grade.  This  should  be  done  at  the  time  the  card  is 
issued.  The  REGULAR  probationary  period  will  be  six 
weeks.  At  the  close  of  four  weeks,  however,  cards  of 
pupils  who  are  either  hopelessly  weak  or  clearly  satis- 
factory may  be  submitted  to  the  principal  for  approval 
and  to  the  superintendent  for  decision  as  to  continued 
probation.  At  the  close  of  six  weeks,  all  cards  of 
pupils  then  on  probation  should  be  submitted  in  like 
manner.  In  certain  exceptional  Cases,  pupils  may  be 
recommended  for  an  additional  two  weeks  probation  and 
upon  the  approval  of  the  principal  and  superintendent 
will  be  so  continued. 

"In  Part  II  indicate  by  check  mark  under  the  number 
of  the  week  the  device  or  devices  you  have  used  to  aid 
the  pupil.  Send  the  card  to  the  principal  each  Friday. 

The  principal  will  return  it  the  following  Monday  ex- 

cept that  at  the  end  of  the  period  he  or  she  will  send 
it  to  the  superintendent’s  office.  At  the  end  of  the 
probationary  period,  make  the  recommendation  as  provid- 
ed. " 

5.  At  the  close  of  the  probationary  period,  pupils  who 

did  not  impress  their  respective  teachers  and  principals  with  the 
fact  that  they  were  placed  where  the  school  could  do  the  most  for 
them,  were  demoted.  It  was  understood  that  pupils  who  were  thus 
demoted,  were  placed  in  the  grade  no  less  favorable  to  their  maxi- 
mum progress  than  if  they  had  not  been  given  this  opportunity  to 

show  whether  or  not  they  could  do  work  of  at  least  as  good  quali- 

ty as  they  had  been  doing  in  the  grade  from  which  they  came  and 
to  which  they  were  returned. 

6.  According  to  this  plan,  the  demoted  pupils  for  the 
second  semester  were  the  only  non-promoted  pupils.  In  this  way, 
the  emphasis  was  shifted  from  evidence  of  having  completed  a 


* 

• 

, . 


. 


. 

. ' .. 


* 

. 

— 

• 

» . 

i 

: 

. 

. 


. •' 

. 

. 


. 

. 


73 


present  grade,  to  evidence  of  ability  to  do  the  work  of  an  ad- 
vanced grade.  This  also  transferred  much  of  the  responsibility 
of  promotion  from  the  advancing  teacher  to  the  receiving  teacher. 

7.  Hie  experiment  was  to  involve  grades  one  to  eight 
inclusive,  but  at  the  discretion  of  either  superintendent , any  of 
the  grades  could  be  omitted.  Accordingly,  in  the  first  semester 
of  the  experiment,  the  Decatur  system  applied  the  promotion  plan 
to  grades  1A  to  7A  inclusive,  while  Springfield  applied  it  to 
grades  1A  to  8B  inclusive.  In  the  second  semester  some  of  the 
schools  included  IB. 

8.  Mental  tests  were  given  to  aid  in  the  disposal  of 
the  doubtful  cases.  Such  cases  were  selected  by  the  teacher  con- 
cerned. 

9.  This  plan  was  not  meant  to  supplant  any  other  ef- 
forts in  the  direction  of  providing  for  individual  differences 
among  pupils  but  was  to  supplement  such  efforts. 

The  Data 

Grades  Included;  The  data  include  reports  on  all  the  pupils  in 
grades  1A  to  7A  inclusive  and  on  pupils  in  8B  at  Springfield. 

The  IB  grade  was  usually  omitted  oecause  the  pupils  of  this  grade 
had  been  in  school  so  short  a time.  The  conditions,  likewise, 
did  not  seem  to  warrant  uniformly  including  grades  above  7A.  This 
matter,  ho?;ever,  was  left  entirely  to  the  schools  concerned. 

Difficulties  in  Gathering  the  Data:  Some  of  the  data  were  diffi- 

cult to  obtain.  This  was  particularly  true  in  the  case  of  several 
pupils  who  came  from  other  systems  and  of  some  foreign  pupils. 


. 

; v 


• 

. 

• 

. 

74 


7 

The  incomplete  records  of  such  pupils  w^s  sometimes  caused  by 
changing  schools  several  times  and  it  was  found  impracticable  to 
trace  back  and  complete  these  data.  The  whole  number  of  semesters 
of  schooling,  for  example,  in  some  instances,  was  not  obtainable; 
and  this  explains  the  fact  that  the  age-grade  tables  do  not  in- 
clude the  full  enrollment.  It  was  sometimes  difficult,  also,  to 
get  teachers  to  understand  just  what  was  wanted.  This  difficulty, 
however,  was  usually  overcome  by  asking  a second  time  or  by  going 
directly  to  the  records. 

How  the  Data  Were  Obtained:  The  superintendents  and  supervising 

teachers  cooperated  in  conveying  to  the  teachers  uniform  in- 
structions as  to  the  manner  and  importance  of  obtaining  accurate 
data.  This  was  done  in  many  instances  by  calling  together  a 
group  of  teachers  and  explicitly  outlining  the  whole  matter. 
Questions  were  then  answered  on  the  directions  which  we  had  sent 
out  and  which  they  had  read  together.  Teachers  were  encouraged 
to  bring  any  of  their  difficulties  to  the  principal  who  had  the 
responsibility  of  supervising  the  whole  procedure  for  his  school. 
After  the  cards  had  been  filled  out  under  such  supervision,  they 
were  sent  from  the  superintendent's  office  to  us. 

Age -C-rade  Pi stributions 

The  data  thus  gathered  were  combined  on  appropriate 
work-sheets  from  which  the  tables  which  follow  were  mctde.  Just 
as  was  done  in  the  preceding  tables  (Chapter  IV),  the  age-grade 
distributions  were  made  by  counting  the  age  to  the  nearest  half 
year,  from  the  date  of  birth  to  February  1,  1919.  The  age-grade- 


» 

. • . 


. 

■ . J ' 


< - 


) 

■ 

• 

75 


progress  was  determined  by  distributions  according  to  age,  grade, 
and  the  number  of  semesters  the  pupil  had  been  in  school.  These 
data  enable  one  to  say  roughly  whether  the  over-ageness  is  due  to 
late  entrance,  to  slow  progress  or  to  both  of  these  factors. 

While  the  ordinary  age-grade  table  distribution,  as  Dr.  Ayres 
says,  remains  the  most  convenient  device  for  ascertaining  quickly 
the  amount  of  over-ageness  of  a grade  or  a school,  it  merely  de- 
scribes and  does  not  explain  a situation.  Since  the  administra- 
tor's chief  interest  is  in  determining  the  factors  responsible 
for  each  failure  as  well  as  for  each  case  of  over-ageness,  these 
data  should  be  expressed  as  we  have  given  them  here,  as  age-grade- 

progress.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  important  thing  in 

64 

any  table  is  that  it  should  be  so  constructed  as  to  give  defin- 
ite usable  information  that  will  aid  the  school  in  discovering  and 
locating  pupils  that  demand  special  or  individual  attention. 


64.  Hill,  David  S.  "Remaining  Errors  in  Measures  of  Retarda- 
tion." Elementary  School  Journal,  May, 
1919,  pp.  700-712. 


TABLE  V.  AGE-GRADE  DISTRIBUTION,  DECATUR  (ILL,) 


TABLE  VI.  THE  DEVIATION  FROM  NORMAL  AGE,  BY  GRADE,  IN 
THE  DECATUR  SCHOOLS 
(Up- to- IF  Standard) 


:Vears 

lB 

1A 

2B:  2a 

3E 

3A 

4B 

4A 

~5F 

5a" 

?B 

7A 

Total 

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1 

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1 

2 

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1 

1 

1 

1 

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1 

9 

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6 

10 

9 

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1 

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1 

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59 

1 

10 

8:’  24 

14 

33 

14 

12 

9 

18 

13 

21 

22 

.12 

218 

At-: 

age:  0 

477 

200 

341:224 

295 

170 

293 

157 

236 

140 

194- 

166 

254 

92 

3239 

: 0— -j|- 

51 

30 

38:  30 

45 

37 

41 

47 

66 

24 

45 

44 

3c 

22 

553 

21 

11 

16:  25 

15 

23 

34 

23 

42 

15 

19 

31 

24 

24 

323 

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8 

4 

13:  12 

18 

21 

19 

15 

17 

10 

29 

15 

16 

9 

206 

:i£-2 

5 

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10 

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5 

10 

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4 

108 

:2-2* 

1 

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3 

4 

3 

8 

5 

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ll 

4 

4 

3 

61 

*:2i-3 

1 

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5 

8 

3 

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6 

1 

1 

43 

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l 

2: 

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t 6—6-^- 

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: Total 

568 

261 

436:328 

411 

316 

434 

288 

ill 

242 

330 

297 

373 

177 

4864 

Under-age  290 
At-age  3239 
Over-age  1335 


78 


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DIAGRAM  2 . DECATUR  SCHOOLS 


IB 

> 0.5^  84.0^  22^/16 

1A 

4 75  22222222 

,, 

1 

3 78 

2A 

ill 

111 

8 68  / 

2222222222^^ 
22^2222224  2222 

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2i 72_ 

3A 

2 

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vxi 

•t* 

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_i 51 

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4A 

W\\ 

5 54  1222222222222 

5B 

i 

59  2222222222222 

5A 

\XV\\\ 

vxx\2 

3. 5§ 

/ / // y/ ///// // / // // //// 

6B 

vvvv 

6 59 

SA 

11 

_2 55 

7B 

iM 

9 68 

7A 

§222i2 52 ; 

*/ ////////  ////////  / / / / / 

x222222^ 

1 

6 67 

mmm. 

Under-age 

At-age 

Over-age 


TABLE  VIII.  AGE-GRADE  DISTRIBUTION,  SPRINGFIELD  (ILL.) 
(Ages  counted  as  at  Feb.  1,  1919) 


82 


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83 


DIAGRAM  3.  SPRINGFIELD  SCHOOLS 


Under-age 

At-age 

Over-age 


. 


84 


Table  V is  the  age-grade  distribution  for  Decatur.  It 
shows  the  amount  of  retardation  by  the  up-to-14^-,  as  well  as  by 
the  up-to-15  standard.  By  the  latter  standard,  Decatur  haa  a 
total  of  27.4  per  cent  of  its  pupils  retarded  in  grades  IB  to  7A 
inclusive.  Table  VI  gives  the  facts  of  over-ageness  for  each 
grade,  showing  a total  of  2S0  under-age,  3239  at-age  and  1335  over- 
age. It  shows  also,  that  pupils,  as  a rule,  are  no  more  than 
three  semesters  under-age,  while  some  may  be  as  much  as  six  se- 
mesters over-age.  Table  VII  is  the  age  condition  of  this  system 
expressed  in  per  cents.  The  same  story  is  expressed  graphically 
in  Figure  2. 

In  like  manner  the  age -grade  facts  of  Springfield  are 
given  in  Table  VIII.  According  to  Table  IX,  which  is  based  on 
this  table,  there  is  about  the  same  spread  of  under-ageness  and 
over-ageness  as  was  found  in  Decatur,  That  is,  there  are  many 
pupils  extremely  over-age  and  but  few  who  are  more  than  three  se- 
mesters too  young.  The  per  cents  shown  in  Table  X indicate  that 
the  largest  amount  of  retardation  was  in  the  grades  four  and  five. 
Figure  3 gives  the  comparative  conditions  of  each  grade  in  this 
system. 

From  Figures  3 and  3,  one  sees  that  very  few  first-grade 
pupils  in  these  systems  entered  school  before  they  were  six  years 
ola.  That  is  to  say,  only  3 per  cent  in  IB  and  5 per  cent  in  1A 
in  Springfield,  were  under-age  their  first  year  at  school.  Like- 
wise, 0.5  per  cent  in  IB  and  4 per  cent  in  1A  in  Decatur,  were 
under-age.  The  uncie r-age  group  in  every  grade  is  comparatively 
small,  for  the  most  part  being  less  than  10  per  cent  of  the  en- 


. 

. 

. 4* 

. : . -iovo”; 

. • 

' 


85 


rollment  in  the  grade.  The  over-age  pupils,  on  the  other  hand, 
comprise  a large  part  of  each  grade.  In  Springfield,  the  per 
cents  range  from  15  in  IB  to  45  in  4A  and  5A.  In  Decatur,  the 
range  is  from  16  per  cent  in  IB  to  40  per  cent  in  4A.  The  over- 
age groups  in  both  systems  are  consistently  large.  In  all  the 
grades  included  in  this  experiment  taken  together,  Springfield  had 
34  per  cent  over-age  and  Decatur  had  3?  per  cent  over-age.  These 
per  cents  indicate  something  of  the  extent  of  the  promotion  prob- 
lem in  these  cities.  In  each  system  over-ageness  begins  to  ac- 
cumulate in  the  earliest  grades  and  after  the  second,  becomes 
rather  uniform  throughout  the  elementary  school.  Something  of 
the  nature  of  this  over-ageness  is  pointed  out  in  the  pages  which 
follow, 

Over-ageness 

In  the  foregoing  tables  the  age  conditions  in  the  grades 
of  these  systems  are  set  forth.  These  tables  show  the  familiar 
fact  that  the  public  schools  continue  to  have  about  one- third  of 
the  pupils  too  old  for  their  respective  grades  and  that  some  of 
them  are  as  much  as  five  or  six  years  too  old.  This  means  that 
the  elementary  grades  under  the  usual  plan  of  promotions,  may  have 
pupils  old  enough  to  be  sophomores  in  a standard  university  held 
back  in  an  eighth-grade  class  with  pupil3  of  an  age  commonly  found 
in  the  sixth  or  seventh  grade. 

The  ages  reported  in  these  tables  are  computed  to  the 
nearest  half  year  and  the  pupils  are  classified  by  the  up-to-15 
standard.  This  standard  allows  an  additional  year  to  what  would 
be  normal  progress  if  the  pupil  entered  at  six  years  old  and  ad- 


. 


. 

' 

♦ 

• ■ ’ . 1 < . • • 


« 

86 


vanced  a grade  a year.  It  is  the  one  most  commonly  used  in  school 

reports.  Its  general  use  makes  it  convenient  for  the  admini stra- 

tor  to  compare  his  school  with  a large  number  of  other  systems 

when  his  purposes  are  best  served  by  comparisons  of  this  kind. 

Comparison  with  other  schools,  however,  is  probably  no  longer  the 

most  important  function  of  the  age-grade  tabulations.  They  are 

the  most  convenient  devices  at  the  command  of  the  superintendent 

or  principal  to  tell  the  age  conditions  within  the  school  system. 

For  this  purpose,  the  up-to-14  standard  may  serve  the  admini stra- 

65 

tor  best.  That  is  to  say,  if  pupils  enter  school  at  six  years 
of  age  and  our  schools  are  organized  on  the  theory  that  they 
should  advance  one  grade  a year,  a comparison  with  such  a standard 
would  more  nearly  show  wherein  the  school  fails  to  measure  up  to 
expectations  than  could  be  seen  by  any  other  standard.  The  change 
in  the  per  cents  of  retardation  in  the  different  systems  as  a re- 
sult of  using  different  standards,  is  shown  in  the  Tables  V and 
VIII.  In  all  these  computations  we  have  regarded  each  pupil's 
age  as  that  which  he  will  be  before  the  close  of  a given  semester. 
This  means,  for  example,  that  if  a pupil  will  be  less  than  15 
years  old  at  the  end  of  the  semester  in  which  he  is  classified  as 
an  8A  pupil,  he  is  not  over-age  by  the  up-to-15  standard.  Accord- 
ing to  the  up-to-14  standard,  an  8A  pupil  is  not  over-age  if  he 
will  be  less  than  14  years  old  at  the  end  of  the  semester. 

The  per  cents  of  retardation  for  these  different  systems 
are  comparable  only  in  the  grades  where  the  full  enrollment  was 

65.  Keyes,  C.  H.  Progress  Through  the  Grades  of  a City  School, 

(Teachers  College  Contributions  to  Education 
No.  42,  Columbia  University,  New  York,  1911), 


. 

' 


. 


* 

Q 

7 * 


- 

i ' 

- - i . - : 


- - 

. 

-s  i A 

* 

• 

- • 

' 

87 


included  in  the  experiment.  The  Danville  experiment  (Chapter  IV) 
was  such  as  could  not  toe  used  below  the  third  grades,  the  lowest 
group  to  take  formal  examinations.  The  tables  are  of  value  chief- 
ly, therefore,  because  they  picture  the  administrative  problem  of 
any  one  of  the  systems  studied.  They  raise  the  question,  for  ex- 
ample, of  what  should  be  done  to  rectify  the  condition  of  43.9  per 
cent  of  over-ageness  in  4A  in  the  Decatur  schools.  Since  repeti- 
tion of  grades  is  probably  the  principal  factor  responsible  for 
this  condition,  the  question  then  becomes,  Why  do  so  many  pupils 
repeat? 

TABLE  XI.  NINEFOLD  DISTRIBUTION,  AGE-GRADE-PROGRESS 
IN  TEE  SPRINGFIELD  SCHOOLS 


Rapid 

Progress 

Age 

Total 

Under-age 

At -age 

Over -age 

B 119 
G 115 

234 

B 218 
G 364 

583 

B ~ 69~" 

G 106 

175 

991 

Normal 

Progress 

B 117 
G 104 

221 

B 1079 
G 1304 

3283 

B 387 
G 275 

562 

3066 

Slow 

Progress 

B 33 
G 36 

69 

B 602 
G 521 

1133 

B 946 
G 686 

1627 

3819 

Total 

524 

3988 

2364 

687  3 

Of  the  S876  pupils  distributed  in  Table  XI,  3283  of  the 
normal  age  group  have  also  made  normal  progress.  And,  1637  of 


Cited  Chapter  III,  “Entrance  Age  Should  be  Physiologically  Six." 


• 

J 

. 

* 

• 

. 

' 

. 

. 

■ ; 

' 

* 

• 

. 


88 


the  total  group  axe  over-age  wholly  or  in  part  from  repeating 
grades.  That  is,  they  are  over-age  and  have  made  slow  progress 
as  shown  by  the  number  of  semesters  they  have  been  in  school. 

The  main  facts  of  this  table  are  expressed  in  terms  of  per  cents 
in  the  one  which  follows. 

TABLE  XII.  NINEFOLD  TABLE,  SPRINGFIELD  SCHOOLS, 

PER  CENTS 


Rapid 

Progress 

Age 

Total 

Under-age 

At -age 

Over- age 

3.4 

8.5 

2.5 

14.4 

Normal 

Progress 

3.2 

33.2 

8.2 

45.6 

Slow 

Progress 

1.0 

16,3 

23.7 

40.0 

Total 

7.  6 

58.0 

34.4 

100.0 

89 


TABLE  XIII.  NINEFOLD  DISTRIBUTION,  AGE-GRADE-PROGRESS 

IN  THE  DECATUR  SCHOOLS 


Rapid 

Progress 

. Age  ::-'  . _ _ _ 

Total 

Under-age 

At-age 

Over-age 

B 67 
G 87 

154 

B 184 
G 235 

419 

1 §0 
G 65 

145 

718 

Normal 

Progress 

B 51 
G 53 

104 

B 1045 
G 1041 

2086 

B 207 
G 174 

381 

2571 

Slow 

Progress 

B 14 
G 18 

32 

B 341 
G 393 

734 

B 439 
G 370 

809 

1675 

Total 

390 

3239 

1335 

4864 

The  totals  of  Table  XIII  show  that  1335  of  the  pupils 
in  the  Decatur  schools  are  over-age.  Of  this  number,  809  are 
retarded  because  of  slow  progress.  Here  as  in  the  other  systems 
studied,  there  are  more  boys  retarded  than  girls,  and  more  girls 
accelerated  than  boys.  Taole  XIV  is  the  same  distribution  ex- 
pressed in  per  cents. 


so 


TABLE  XIV.  NINEFOLD  DISTRIBUTION,  AGE-GRADE- PROGRESS 

IN  THE  DECATUR  SCHOOLS 


Rapid 

Progress 

Under-age 

At-age 

Over-age  : 

Total 

3.2 

8.6 

2.9  : 

14.7 

Normal 

Progress 

2.1 

42.9 

7.8  : 

52.8 

Slew 

Progress 

.7 

15.1 

16.7  : 

32.5 

Total 

6,0 

6S.  6 

27.4  : 

100.0 

By  comparing  Tables  XII  and  XIV,  one  finds  the  age- 
grade  conditions  in  Springfield  and  Decatur  quite  similar.  In 
the  former  there  was  3.4  per  cent  and  in  the  latter  3.2  per  cent 
of  pupils  who  were  rapid  and  under-age.  In  the  over -age,  slow- 
progress  groups,  the  per  cents  are  23. S and  16.5  respectively. 

In  both  systems  there  are  large  slow-progress  groups  which  point 
out  the  fact  that  much  of  the  retardation  is  due  to  some  cause 
for  which  the  school  is  probably  responsible.  The  data  for  these 
systems  have  more  significance  when  compared  with  those  of  some 
other  city.  The  distribution  of  similar  data  for  the  Cleveland 
schools  was  reported  by  Ayres  in  1916. 


91 


TABLE  XV.  NINEFOLD  DISTRIBUTION,  CLEVELAND,  OHIO 
(Cleveland  Survey)  1916 


e$ 

Under-age  and 
Rapid  Progress 

2$ 

Normal  age  and 
Rapid  Progress 

1$ 

Over -age  and 
Rapid  Progress 

30$ 

Under-age  and 
Normal  Progress 

23$ 

Normal  age  and 
Normal  Progress 

S$ 

Over-sage  ana 
Nor  mdlN  Progress 

1$ 

Under-age  and 
Slow  Progress 

9$ 

Normal  age  and 
Slow  Progress 

22$ 

Over-age  and  \ 
Slow  Progress 

All  three  of  these  distributions  show  that  only  about 
half  of  the  pupils  make  normal  progress  under  the  present  system 
of  promotion  and  all  agree  in  pointing  out  that  the  greatest  fac- 
tor is  slow  progress.  The  greatest  difference  between  the  Cleve- 
land showing  and  that  of  Springfield  and  Decatur,  lies  in  the 
care  devoted  to  under-age  children  who  have  made  normal  progress. 
Cleveland  shows  30  per  cent  while  Springfield  shows  3,  and 
Decatur  2.  The  proportion  of  under-age  children  is  much  greater 
in  Cleveland  than  in  the  other  two  cities. 


TABLE  XVI.  THE  NUMBER  AND  PER  CENT  OF  PUPILS,  DECATUR  SCHOOLS,  ACCORDING  TO 


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Table  XVI  gives  the  amount  of  rapidity  or  slowness  in 
the  schools  of  Decatur*  According  to  this  table,  35  pupils 
(0*7  per  cent)  have  gained,  three  or  more  semesters  in  their  pro- 
gress through  the  grades  and  are  under-age.  In  like  manner  73 
(1.5  per  cent  of  all)  are  three  or  more  semesters  advanced  in 
progress,  but  are  at-age  for  their  present  grade,  and  82  others 
of  those  have  made  equally  rapid  progress  but  are  still  too  old 
for  their  present  grade.  In  all,  there  are  290  pupils  under-age 
and  1335  over-age. 

In  the  over- age  group,  249  (5.1  per  cent)  have  been 
retarded  in  their  progress  by  three  or  more  semesters,  213  (4.5 
per  cent)  by  two  semesters,  and  343  (6.8  per  cent)  by  one  se- 
mester. 

Slightly  more  than  half  of  the  pupils  in  Decatur  are 
making  normal  progress  (53.1  per  cent),  and  almost  half  (42.9 
per  cent)  of  them  are  at-age  for  their  present  grade. 


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Table  XVII  tells  the  same  story  for  Springfield  that 
the  preceding  table  (XVI)  does  for  Decatur.  Both  are  meant  to 
portray  for  the  pupils  of  these  systems,  the  degrees  of  rapidity 
and  slowness  which  have  resulted  from  the  present  plan  of  promo- 
tion. By  giving  the  number  of  semesters  the  pupils  are  retarded 
or  accelerated,  the  table  shows  not  only  the  fact  that  a certain 
per  cent  of  them  are  slow  or  rapid,  but  also  how  slow  or  rapid 
they  are.  In  Springfield,  for  example,  2.6  per  cent  of  the  pu- 
pils are  three  or  more  semesters  rapid,  and  9.4  per  cent  are 
three  or  more  semesters  slow.  In  other  words,  in  the  schools  of 
Springfield,  at  present,  one  child  in  40  is  three  or  more  se- 
mesters rapid  and  over  against  this,  one  child  in  10  is  three  or 
more  semesters  behind  grade  from  slow  progress.  There  should  be 
some  readjustment,  no  doubt,  in  the  present  plan  of  promotions  to 
allow  more  pupils  to  make  rapid  progress  and  to  assure  special 
attention  to  pupils  who  are  making  slow  progress  by  repeating 
grades. 


. 


. 


96 


Significance  of  School  Progress 

Assuming  that  the  courses  of  study  for  the  public 
schools  are  adjusted  to  the  needs  of  the  average  child,  there 
should  be  theoretically,  according  to  a normal  distribution  about 
as  many  rapid  pupils  as  there  are  slow.  The  foregoing  tables 
show  that  the  slow  pupils  are  much  more  numerous  than  the  rapid 
pupils.  This  means  that  for  some  reason  there  are  many  pupils 
who  are  not  making  the  maximum  progress  that  they  should  make. 

They  are  thus  piled  up  in  the  slow  or  normal  group  instead  of  be- 
ing classified  according  to  their  capabilities. 

Instead  of  asking,  can  this  pupil  profit  more  by  the 
work  offered  in  the  nsxx  higher  grade  than  he  can  by  repeating  a 
grade,  the  records  of  these  schools  (and  these  cities  are  not 
exceptional)  suggest  that  many  pupils  are  not  considered  ready 
for  advancement  until  they  pass  over  every  hurdle  at  the  teach- 
ers' command.  Lack  of  normal  distribution  in  the  matter  of  school 
progress  should  signify  to  the  administrator  <afc  least  two  things. 
Either  the  ideals  of  the  system  o.re  faulty  or  the  teachers  are 
not  doing  their  full  duty.  The  system  is  at  fault  if  provisions 
are  not  made  to  work  every  pupil  up  to  his  capacity.  On  the 
other  hand,  no  system  will  work  well  in  the  hands  of  a poor  teach- 
er or  one  who  fails  to  see  her  possibilities. 

Pupil 3 Lose  By  Changing  Schools:  One  of  the  weaknesses  to  be 

avoided  in  any  system,  is  that  of  placing  pupils  who  come  to  the 
school  from  another  system,  a grade  lower  than  they  were  classi- 
fied without  giving  them  a chance  to  show  with  what  success  they 


97 


Can  do  the  work  after  the  strangeness  of  the  new  situation  wears 

off.  Evidence  of  this  retarding  influence  was  gained  by  the 

66 

writer  in  191o,  in  a study  of  the  effects  of  mobility  of  the 
population  on  school  progress.  Six  schools  were  studied,  three 
in  Southern  Illinois  and.  three  in  Central  Illinois.  It  was  found 
that  about  one  time  in  three,  when  pupils  change  schools  during 
the  term,  the  change  is  accompanied  by  a loss  of  promotion.  Many 
pupils  expressed  themselves  as  having  been  "put  back"  a grade. 

Means  Double  Loss:  Whatever  the  cause  that  prevents  proper  pro- 

gress, the  administrator  mu3t  not  lose  sight  of  the  significance 
of  this  condition.  Over-ageness  usually  means  loss  cf  opportuni- 
ty not  only  for  the  pupil  but  for  the  teacher  also.  Many  over- 
age pupils  lose  interest  and  do  not  try  to  do  a good  grade  of 
work.  They  usually  drop  out  of  school  as  soon  as  they  reach  the 
limit  of  compulsory  age.  They  have  thereby  been  deprived  of  the 
opportunity  for  the  valuable  training  in  citizenship  which  the 
social  studies  of  the  higher  grades  afford. 

Promotion  Plan  at  Fault:  Besides  the  pupils  that  are  retarded 

by  being  put  back  when  they  move,  there  are  many  others  whose 

condition  of  over-ageness  is  due  to  the  customary  practice  in 

matters  of  promotion.  That  is  to  say,  the  system  itself  is 

6 7 

often  at  fault.  In  answer  to  the  question,  "What  advantages, 

66.  Master's  Thesis,  University  of  Illinois,  1915  (Unpublished). 

Part  of  a Questionnaire  sent  by  Superintendent  Allen  of 
Springfield  to  his  teachers. 


67. 


98 


if  any,  are  realized  by  this  plan  of  promotions  (i .e.,  the  ex- 
perimental plan)  that  cannot  be  obtained  by  the  old  plan,”  one 
teacher  replied:  "There  were  two  pupils  in  my  room  that  were  pro- 
moted on  probation  on  account  of  being  out  of  school  so  much  be- 
cause of  sickness.  In  both  cases  they  stayed  in  the  grade  to 
which  they  were  promoted.  By  the  old  plan  (the  customary  pro- 
cedure), they  would  have  been  kept  back  when  they  were  really 
capable  of  doing  the  work  of  the  next  gro.de.  " This  means,  also, 
that  irregular  attendance  which  is  one  of  the  most  generally  ac- 
cepted legitimate  causes  for  non-promotion,  is  not  always  suffi- 
cient cause  for  repdating  the  work  of  o,  grade,-  particularly 
when  the  case  is  to  be  decided  in  the  light  of  what  a pupil  can 
do,  rather  than  what  he  has  done. 

Still  another  type  of  case  is  illustrated  by  a second 
teacher's  reply  to  the  same  question.  T«e  quote  again:  "I  have 
in  my  group  of  children,  S.  J.  M. , C.  R. , E.  ?.  and  D.  R. , who 
have  repeated  the  work  they  are  doing  twice  before  and  it  is 
still  above  them.  These  children  are  not  hopeless  dullards. . . 
they  are  just  slow. . They  belong  in  special  classes  until  they 
grasp  the  essentials.  They  should  be  doing  IB  instead  of  2A." 
Here  rapid  progress  is  evidently  not  the  proper  remedy.  This  is 
an  instance  where  school  progress  may  be  impeded  by  too  rapid 
promotion.  As  the  teacher  suggests,  the  pupils  with  such  re- 
cords should  probably  be  placed  in  a special  room  where  they  can 
make  headway  according  to  their  peculiar  limitations.  That  is, 
school  progress  may,  in  such  cases,  be  limited  by  many  different 
factors.  By  isolating  certain  "Misfits"  and  then  studying  their 


. 

. 


: 

* 

. • 


. 


29 


peculiar  handicaps,  the  school  may  be  made  to  serve  their  in- 
dividual needs. 

Causes  oi"  Over-ageness 

Lack  of  normal  progress  as  described  above  causes  pu- 
pils to  become  too  old  for  the  grades  in  which  they  ore  classi- 
fied. Obviously,  the  causes  for  over-ageness  are  numerous  but 
they  may  be  roughly  classified  under  two  headings  or  some  com- 
bination of  them.  In  the  literature  on  retardation,  it  has  been 
pointed  out  that  pupils  are  over-age  either  because  of  late  en- 
trance in  school  or  because  of  slow  progress  or  both.  When  both 
causes  are  present  the  responsibility  is  divided  between  the 
home  and  the  school,  but  in  the  matter  of  late  entrance,  society 
must  recognize  its  negligence  as  the  primary  cause.  In  the 
matter  of  slow  progress,  the  school  must  accept  the  responsibili- 
ty for  analyzing  the  condition  and  prescribing  a suitable  remedy. 
Also,  regardless  of  who  is  responsible  for  a condition  cf  aver- 
ageness, the  school  must  put  forth  every  effort  possible  to  ad- 
vance the  pupils  as  fast  as  they  .are  capable,  in  the  endeavor  to 
place  them  in  the  grade  or  grades  most  nearly  in  accord  with 
their  mental  capacity. 

Amount  of  Over-age ness 

About  the  time  that  age-grade  tables  came  into  use 
and  administrators  became  generally  a¥«rare  of  so  much  over-ageness 
in  the  elementary  school,  different  studies  reported  about  40 
per  cent  of  the  pupils  too  old  for  their  grades.  Many  studies 


100 


from  year  to  year  have  shown  similar  results.  Some  recent  school 
reports,  selected  at  random,  show  that,  we  have  not  materially 
reduced  the  amount  of  retardation  in  recent  years.  Some  of  the 
latest  obtainable  reports  show  the  following  conditions:  Rifle, 

Colorado  (1920)  reported  47,5  per  cent  retarded;  Detroit,  Michi- 
gan (1916)  19,2  per  cent  retarded  one  year,  8.9  per  cent  two 
years,  15  per  cent  three  years,  and  6.1  per  cent  more  than  three 
years,  making  a total  of  49.3  per  cent  or  nearly  half  over-age. 
Philadelphia  in  the  same  year  had  58.6  per  cent  retarded.  The 
New  Orleans  Survey  (1915)  gave  that  city's  record  as  59.9  per 
cent  overage;  and  Van  Sickle's  report  of  Bridgeport,  Connecticut 
(1913)  showed  17  per  cent  young,  24  per  cent  normal  and  59  per 
cent  over-age.  The  report  for  Bridgeport,  however,  i3  based  on 
the  up-to-14  instead  of  the  up-to-15  standard.  Grand  Rapids,  by 
the  latter  standard  had  45  per  cent  over-age;  and  Rockford, 
Illinois  (1916)  reported  21  per  cent  advanced,  41.7  per  cent 
normal  and  37.3  per  cent  over-age.  The  Janesville,  Wisconsin 
Survey  gave  for  that  city  (1918)  36  per  cent  under-age,  35  per 
cent  normal  and  29  per  cent  over-age.  For  the  whole  State  of 
Wisconsin,  the  figures  7/ere  13,  34  and  53  respectively. 

On  the  whole,  these  reports  selected  as  they  were, 
show  that  we  have  not  yet  attacked  the  most  important  factor  or 
factors  responsible  for  this  great  amount  of  retardation.  In 
contrast  with  the  foregoing  reports,  appeared  that  of  Somerville, 
Massachusetts  (1918).  This  report  suggests  that  schools  which 
allow  a probationary  period  in  which  to  determine  whether  the 
pupils  can  do  the  work  of  the  grade  to  which  promotion  is  to  take 


. 


. 


. 


' 


1C1 


place,  have  a decidedly  lower  per  cent  of  retardation.  The  age- 
grade  table  issued  for  this  school  in  October  of  that  year,  gives 
only  1078  out  of  a total  of  10,287  elementary  pupils  (about  10.4 
per  cent)  over-age.  There  were  848  additional  pupils  given  con- 
ditional promotion,  making  at  most  about  19  per  cent  over-age. 

The  report  fails  to  record  anything  by  way  of  special  promotion- 
al devices,  except  that  the  pupils  were  given  a chance  to  show 
whether  they  could  do  the  work  of  the  next  grade. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  data,  Table  XVIII  is 
shown.  It  is  a modification  of  one  in  Ayres’  "Identification  of 
the  Misfit  Child",  Russell  Sage  Foundation  Bulletin  No.  108.  It 
has  been  modified  by  the  addition  of  figures  from  Salt  Lake  City, 
Butte  and  Bloomington,  Indiana.  This  table  is  given  as  it  ap- 
pears in  Smith's  "Survey  of  a Public  School  System",  page  18. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  cities  listed  are  mentioned  in  the 
order  of  the  amount  of  retardation  in  their  public  schools.  The 
city  with  the  lowest  per  cent  of  retardation  (19)  is  first  in  the 
list  and  the  others  follow  in  order.  The  cities  of  the  present 
study  would  all  be  properly  classified  in  the  upper  half  of  this 
table.  That  is,  none  of  our  schools  exceed  the  median  (36  per 
cent)  of  this  list  of  per  cents.  The  results  of  our  study, 
therefore,  striking  as  they  are,  would  have  been  no  doubt,  even 
more  promising  if  this  experiment  had  been  in  any  one  of  more 
than  50  per  cent  of  the  schools  of  the  country. 


‘ 


■ 


■ 


. 

■ 


. 


■ 


■ 


102 


TABLE  XVIII.  RETARDATION,  ACCELERATION  AND  NORMAL 
PROGRESS  IN  30  DIFFERENT  AMERICAN  CITIES 


Per  Cent 


Retarded 

Normal 

Accelera 

Quincy,  Mass 

19 

31 

50 

Bloomington,  Ind.  1914 

22.4 

66 

11.6 

Racine,  Wis. 

28 

42 

30 

Amsterdan,  N.  Y, 

28 

23 

49 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

29 

29 

42 

Indianapolis,  Ind 

29 

37 

34 

Bloomington,  Ind.  1913 

29.5 

62.9 

7.6 

Danbury,  Conn. 

31 

31 

38 

Milwaukee,  Wis. 

31 

41 

28 

Rockford,  111, 

33 

40 

38 

Canton,  0. 

34 

38 

28 

Elmira,  N.  Y 

34 

38 

38 

New  Rochelle,  N.  Y. 

34 

50 

36 

Muskegon,  Mich. 

35 

40 

25 

Niagara  Falls,  N.  Y. 

35 

33 

31 

Topeka,  Kans. 

36 

38 

26 

Bloomington,  Ind.  1913 

37 

53.3 

10.8 

Danville,  111 

38 

34 

28 

Trenton,  N.  J. 

38 

31 

31 

Reading,  Pa, 

40 

35 

25 

Plainfield,  N.  J. 

40 

30 

30 

Pearth  Amboy,  N.  J. 

41 

32 

27 

Bayonne,  N.  J. 

42 

31 

37 

Hazeiton,  Pa. 

42 

36 

23 

Salt  Lake  City,  U. 

43 

40 

IS 

East  St.  Louis,  111. 

44 

34 

22 

Elizabeth,  N.  J 

51 

23 

Kenosha,  Wis. 

48 

36 

16 

Mont  Clair,  N.  J. 

48 

34 

18 

New  Orleans  (White) 

49 

31 

20 

Butte,  Mont. 

51 

41 

7 

Passaic,  N.  J 

51 

32 

17 

t 

• ■ 


103 


It  may  be  objected  by  seme  that  the  data  in  Table 

XVIII  are  not  sufficiently  recent  to  justify  comparison  with 

present-day  conditions  in  certain  schools.  As  further  evidence 

that  the  schools  throughout  the  country  by  present  methods,  are 

continuing  to  fail  about  the  usual  90  per  cent  of  the  pupils,  we 

give  Tables  XIX  and  XX  which  are  taken  from  a circular  sent  out 

68 

by  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  March  25,  1921. 

TABLE  XIX.  PER  CENT  OF  PUPILS  PROMOTED  IN  38  CITIES 
BASED  ON  A STUDY  OF  100,000  CHILDREN 


Grade 

°jo  Promoted  of 
No.  in  Grade  at 
Close  of  Term 

°jo  Promoted  on 
Total  Enrollment 
of  Term 

1 

84.6 

77.9 

2 

91.2 

87.5 

3 

92.3 

84.9 

4 

92.4 

83. 8 

5 

90.8 

87.4 

6 

91.4 

85.0 

7 

90.3 

84.7 

8 

91.5 

84.9 

Total 

90,1 

85.1 

68.  Claxton,  P.  P.  "City  School  Circular".  No.  2,  United 

States  Bureau  of  Education,  March  25, 
1921. 


104 


TABLE  XX.  PER  CENT  PROMOTED  IN  ALL  GRADES,  BASED  ON 
NUMBER  IN  GRADES  AT  CLOSE  OF  TERM 


Fargo,  N.  Dak. 

96.4 

Elmyra,  0. 

90.8 

Greenville,  Miss. 

95.8 

Augusta,  Me. 

90  • 6 

Batavia,  N.  Y. 

95.6 

Newport  News,  Va. 

90.5 

E.  Chicago,  Ind. 

9b.  5 

Globe,  Ariz. 

SO.  3 

Salem,  Ore. 

95.4 

Tucson,  Ariz. 

89.4 

Greely,  Colo. 

95.0 

Attleboro,  Mass. 

89.3 

Winston-Salem,  N.  C. 

94.9 

Sioux  Falls,  S.  Dak. 

88.9 

Lewiston,  Ida. 

94.8 

Laconia,  N.  H. 

88.0 

Beloit,  Wis. 

94.2 

Aberdeen,  S.  Dak. 

87.9 

Oak  Park,  111. 

94.0 

Bethlehem,  Pa. 

87.2 

Albuquerque,  N.  Mex. 

93.8 

Selma,  Ala. 

87.1 

Chambers burg,  Pa. 

93.3 

Rome , Ga. 

87.1 

Logan,  Utah 

92. 7 

Grand  Island,  Neb. 

8o . 3 

Lakewood,  0. 

93.6 

Jefferson  City,  Mo. 

85, 3 

Makato,  Minn. 

91.4 

Boulder,  Colo. 

85.1 

Long  Beach,  Cal. 

91.3 

Port  Arthur,  Tex. 

84.5 

Ft,  Smith,  Ark. 

91.3 

Nut ley,  N.  J. 

84.1 

Ypsilanti,  Mich. 

91.3 

Morgantown,  W.  Va. 

83.9 

Kenosha,  Wis. 

90.9 

Baton  Rouge,  La. 

76.9 

Average  for  All, 

90.1- 

—Median  for  All  90.0 

Further  discussion  as  to  how  the  per  cent  of  promotions 
may  be  increased  will  be  taken  up  in  the  chapter  which  follows. 


105 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  DECATUR- SPRINGFIELD  EXPERIMENT  (Continued) 

E,  The  Non-recommended  Groups 

About  two  weeks  prior  to  the  end  of  each  semester  of 
our  experiment,  according  to  the  custom  of  Decatur  and  of  Spring- 
field,  the  pupils  who  were  not  recommended  for  promotion,  were 
reported  by  the  teachers  of  each  grade  to  the  superintendent . 
These  pupils  who  in  the  regular  course  of  events  would  have 
failed,  constitute  our  experimental  groups.  The  first  of  these 
lists  (reported  in  Table  XXI)  was  made  up  by  the  teachers  before 
they  knew  that  the  superintendent  was  anticipating  a change  in 
the  usual  plan  of  promotions. 


{ 


1C6 


TABLE  XXI.  DISTRIBUTION  OF  PUPILS  WHO  WERE  NOT  RECOMMENDED 
FOR  PROMOTION.  BASED  ON  TEACHERS'  ESTIMATES  AT  THE 
CLOSE  OF  THE  SEMESTER,  FEBRUARY , 1919 


Springfield 

Decatur 

Both 

Cities 

Grade 

Enroll- 

ment 

Non-re- 

commended 

Enroll- 

ment 

Non-re- 

commended 

Enroll- 

ment 

Non-re- 

commended 

No. 

1°^ 

No, 

T 

No. 

U_ 

1A 

456 

77 

17.0 

365 

35 

13.2 

721 

113 

15.5 

SB 

634 

125 

20.0 

436 

42 

9.6 

1060 

167 

15.8 

2A 

477 

S3 

19,5 

328 

24 

7.3 

805 

117 

14.5 

3B 

593 

96 

16.3 

411 

23 

5.6 

1004 

119 

11.9 

3A 

476 

57 

14.1 

316 

21 

6.  6 

792 

83 

11.1 

4B 

572 

77 

13.5 

434 

29 

6.7 

1006 

106 

10.1 

4A 

498 

58 

11.7 

288 

13 

4.5 

786 

71 

9.9 

5B 

553 

84 

15.2 

399 

15 

3.8 

953 

99 

10.4 

5A 

380 

43 

11.3 

242 

17 

7.0 

622 

60 

9.6 

6B 

494 

53 

10.8 

330 

13 

4.0 

824 

66 

8.0 

6A 

378 

40 

10.6 

297 

21 

7.1 

675 

61 

9.0 

7B 

432 

73 

16.9 

373 

4 

1.1 

805 

77 

9.5 

7A 

320 

63 

19.7 

177 

3 

1.1 

497 

65 

13.1 

8B 

411 

69 

X o*  o 

— 

- 

- - 

411 

68 

14.4 

Total 

6664 

1017 

15.3 

4296 

259 

6.0 

10960 

127  6 

11.7 

Reading  totals,  Table  XXI  shows  that  in  Springfield, 
there  was  an  enrollment  of  6664  pupils  in  grades  1A  to  SB  inclu- 
sive, the  first  semester  of  our  experiment.  Of  this  number,  1017 
or  15.3  per  cent  were  not  included  by  their  teachers  in  the  list 
of  pupils  who  were  thought  to  be  ready'  for  the  next  higher  grade. 


I 


107 


In  Decatur,  25S  pupils  were  included  in  the  non-re commended  list. 
In  the  two  systems  taken  together,  there  was  a total  of  1276  non- 
recommended  pupils  constituting  11.7  per  cent  of  the  enrollment. 
These  are  the  pupils  who  were  given  an  opportunity  to  show 
whether  they  could  do  the  work  of  the  advanced  grade. 

In  the  second  and  third  semesters,  the  teachers  were 
a3ked  to  pass  on  the  pupils  and  make  up  similar  lists  just  as  if 
the  old  plan  of  promotions  was  to  be  followed.  These  lists  were 
made  up  without  any  reference  to  whether  the  pupils  had  been  in- 
cluded in  former  lists.  The  same  standards  as  nearly  as  possible, 
therefore,  were  used  in  determining  the  different  lists  of  non- 
re  commended  pupils. 

As  we  have  stated  before,  these  pupils  were  given  six 
weeks  probation  in  which  to  show  whether  they  could  do  the  work 
of  the  advanced  grade.  A probationary  card  was  filled  out  for 
all  such  pupils  who  remained  in  school.  This  card  (E.R.7)  was 
made  out  by  the  receiving  teacher,  who  thus  kept  a daily  report 
of  progress  made  during  probation. 

Table  XXII  is  the  distribution  of  all  the  probationers 
f'or  three  successive  semesters.  This  table  shows,  also,  the  re- 
sults of  this  extra  consideration  by  the  receiving  teachers.  By 
receiving  teacher  here,  we  mean  the  teacher  of  the  next  higher 
grade.  Not  infrequently,  this  was  the  same  teacher  that  the 
pupil  had  in  the  previous  grade. 


' 


. 

■ 


108 


TABLE  XXII.  NUMBER  OF  PUPILS  PLACED  ON  PROBATION  EACH  TRIAL 
PERIOD,  SPRINGFIELD  AND  DECATUR  COMBINED 


Probationary 

Number 

Number  Who 

Per  Cent 

Period 

Placed  on 

Consummated 

Consummated 

Probation 

Promotion 

Promotion 

First  (Feb. -March 

1919) 

1276 

961 

75.3 

Second  (Sept. -Oct. 

1919) 

88 1 

663 

75.2 

Third  (Feb. -March 

1920) 

984 

616 

62. 8 

Total  Cases 

3141 

3240 

71.3 

Out  of  a total  of  3141  cases,  2340  (71.3  per  cent) 
consummated  their  promotion.  In  other  words,  when  the  pupils 
were  given  a chance  to  demonstrate  whether  they  could  do  the  work 
of  the  next  higher  grade  as  a basis  for  promotion  to  that  grade, 
three  out  of  every  four  in  the  first  two  periods  and  nearly  two 
out  of  every  three  in  the  third  period  met  the  teachers’  require- 
ments for  promotion.  This  advancement  as  we  shall  later  point 
out,  was  due  to  shifting  the  emphasis  from  the  old  "passing  mark" 
basis  as  the  criterion  for  promotion,  to  ability  to  do  satisfactory 
work  in  the  grade  to  which  advancement  is  to  take  place. 


/ 


109 


n 


TABLE  XXIII.  THE  CHANGE  IN  PROMOTION  RATE  AS  A RESULT  OF  THE 
PROBATIONARY'  PERIOD,  SECOND  SEMESTER  1918-1919,  IN 
THE  SPRINGFIELD  SCHOOLS 


1918 

1919 

Grade 

Enroll- 

Recommended 

Enroll- 

Recom- 

Pro- 

Gain 

went 

and  Promoted 

ment 

mended 

moted 

1A 

439 

371 

456 

370 

436 

56 

3B 

591 

531 

624 

498 

579 

81 

3A 

436 

477 

477 

378 

455 

77 

3B 

535 

481 

593 

4S9 

557 

68 

3A 

477 

435 

47  6 

409 

474 

35 

4B 

901 

503 

572 

464 

549 

65 

4A 

3 69 

321 

498 

434 

481 

47 

5B 

505 

448 

553 

467 

538 

71 

5A 

345 

305 

380 

336 

378 

53 

SB 

453 

411 

494 

430 

469 

39 

SA 

3 SI 

334 

378 

339 

344 

15 

7B 

480 

435 

432 

361 

398 

37 

7A 

305 

263 

320 

260 

296 

36 

3B 

289 

267 

411 

343 

409 

56 

Total 

617  S 

5431 

6664 

5578 

6353 

775 

Per- 

cent 

88 

83.  6 

95.3 

11.  6 

Table  XXIII  shows  data  by  which  one  can  compare  cor- 
responding semesters  in  different  years  in  the  same  school  system. 
The  1918  data  show  the  results  when  pupil  are  promoted  in  the 
usual  way.  Then  the  recommended  list  and  the  promoted  list  were 


/ 


110 


the  same.  The  1919  data  plainly  show  an  advantage  of  11.6  per 
cent  gain  in  the  promotion  rate  as  a result  of  giving  all  pupils 
a chance  to  do  the  work  of  the  next  grade. 

TABLE  XXIV.  PUPILS  ON  REGISTER  NOT  RECOMMENDED  IN  DECATUR  AND 
SPRINGFIELD  FOR  PROMOTION  FEBRUARY,  1918  AND  1919 


Grade 

Dec at ur 

Springfield 

Both  Cities 

1918 

1919 

1918 

1919 

1918 

1919 

1A 

36 

35 

58 

83 

94 

131 

2B 

47 

48 

67 

127 

114 

175 

2A 

25 

27 

49 

98 

74 

125 

3B 

38 

34 

56 

1C4 

94  . 

132 

3A 

24 

15 

51 

67 

75 

88 

4B 

28 

25 

89 

88 

117 

113 

4A 

27 

9 

48 

64 

75 

73 

5B 

30 

17 

57 

86 

87 

103 

5A 

19 

8 

32 

54 

51 

62 

6B 

13 

21 

43 

64 

59 

35 

6A 

21 

15 

39 

49 

58 

64 

7B 

21 

26 

44 

71 

65 

97 

7A 

5 

6 

62 

60 

67 

66 

8B 

- 

- 

22 

68 

22 

68 

Total 

337 

286 

715 

1083 

1052 

1373 

Table  XXIV  gives  by  grades  in  the  two  systems,  the  dis- 
tribution of  pupils  who  were  not  recommended  for  promotion  in 
corresponding  semesters  of  two  successive  years.  It  shows  that 


Ill 


Decatur  had  fewer  and  Springfield  had  more  pupils  who  would  have 
failed  of  promotion  by  the  usual  plan  in  1S19  than  in  1918,  The 
change  in  numbers  is  not  confined  to  any  particular  grades.  In 
the  two  systems  taken  together  there  was  an  increase  from  1052 
in  February,  1918,  to  1372  in  February,  1919.  Corresponding  data 
for  the  second  and  third  semesters  together  with  the  per  cent 
of  pupils  in  each  grade  that  consummated  their  promotion  in  all 
three  semesters  are-  shown  in  Table  XXV.  It  will  be  observed  that 
the  number  of  probationers  for  February,  1919,  as  shown  in  Table 
XXV  is  not  the  same  as  the  number  of  non-re commended  pupils 
shown  in  Table  XXIV.  This  is  aue  to  the  fact  that  the  enrollment 
did  not  remain  the  same  bet?/een  the  time  the  recommendations  were 
made  and  the  end  of  the  succeeding  probationary  period.  A total 
of  96  pupils  of  the  non- re commended  list  moved  or  for  ether 
reasons  dropped  school.  Such  a floating  element  is  to  be  found 
in  any  school. 


112 


"1 


TABLE  XXV.  DISTRIBUTION  OF  PUPILS  WO  WERE  ON  PROBATION  IN 
DECATUR  AND  SPRINGFIELD  AND  THE  NUMBER  AND  PER 
CENT  PROMOTED  EACH  SEMESTER 


Semester  Ending 

Feb, 

1919 

June  1919 

Feb, 

1920 

Grads 

Proba-" 

Promoted 

Froba- 

Promoted 

Proba- 

Promoted 

tioners 

No. 

tioners 

No. 

3 _ 

tioners 

No. 

% 

1A 

112 

36 

56. 2 

77 

48 

63.2 

74 

28 

37.9 

SB 

167 

121 

72.6 

82 

58 

70.7 

82 

41 

50.0 

2A 

117 

88 

75.2 

64 

49 

76.  6 

82 

35 

42.7 

3B 

119 

86 

79.1 

55 

47 

85.4 

76 

42 

55.2 

3A 

88 

75 

85.2 

85 

62 

72.9 

S3 

43 

68.3 

45 

106 

96 

90.1 

69 

55 

79.7 

117 

71 

60,7 

4A 

71 

56 

78.9 

70 

52 

74.3 

65 

51 

78.5 

5B 

89 

82 

83.8 

51 

43 

84.3 

64 

47 

73.4 

5A 

60 

59 

98.3 

60 

45 

75.0 

64 

44 

68.8 

,6B 

66 

44 

66.8 

62 

37 

59.  7 

66 

36 

54.5 

6A 

61 

39 

63. 9 

41 

31 

75.6 

66 

56 

84.8 

7B 

77 

46 

59.6 

67 

58 

86.  6 

59 

44 

74.6 

7A 

65 

42 

64.6 

52 

41 

78.8 

64 

50 

78.1 

8B 

68 

64 

94.1 

34 

27 

79.4 

27 

21 

77.8 

8A 

— 

— 

--  - 

7 

5 

71.4 

15 

7 

46.7 

Ungraded 

— 

«... 

. - «, 

5 

5 

100 

Total 

127  6 

961 

75.3 

881 

663 

75.2 

984 

616 

62.  6 

Moved  or 

Otherwise 

Accounted 

For 

96 

77 

34 

Total 

Enrolled 

1372 

958 

1018 

• 

113 


DIAGRAM  4.  THE  PER  CENTS  OF  PROBATIONERS  PROMOTED,  BY  GRADE, 
FOR  THREE  SEMESTERS.  BASED  ON  TABLE  XXV. 

IQ  SO  30  40  50  60  70  80  90 

_ ; _ _ ~ 

2B  — — — — — l^— — 

2A  '*?■'-  i — i^^M— ====== 

3A 

4b  ======= 

58  ^^^^^S55SSSSSS5^SSSSS5S Sc== 
5A  SSS^SSSSSI  ESSi^S  5^5 

SA  5SI  SSI  SS  ^^2  SSS^SSiiaaHiz:  ======== 

?B  SS^SISSSSSS^SSSS— 

? a SSSSSISS^^SSSZ^^SSHHiMiM 

sb  ^SISSSSS^SSS^^S^SSSS^^™"1: 

8A  


All 


. 


. 


114 


A comparison  of  the  data  in  the  foregoing  tables,  re- 
veals the  fact  that  a greater  number  of  pupils  were  on  probation 
the  first  time  than  in  either  subsequent  occasion.  This  was  due 
in  part  at  least,  to  the  abnormal  conditions  resulting  from  an 
epidemic  of  influenza  which  was  general  throughout  the  country 
in  the  fall  and  winter  of  the  school  year  1916-1919. 

The  plan  of  allowing  all  pupils  to  demonstrate  their 
ability  to  do  the  work  of  the  next  higher  grade,  resulted  (Table 
XXIV)  in  putting  1086  pupils  at  Springfield  and  286  pupils  at 
Decatur  on  probation  for  six  weeks.  Of  the  total  number  thus 
placed  on  probation,  96  (Table  XXV)  moved  out  of  the  district  or 
for  some  other  reason  withdrew.  Of  those  remaining,  961  (75.3%) 
were  promoted  by  virtue  of  the  special  plan. 

In  the  two  semesters  that  followed,  the  per  cents  of 
advantage  are  about  the  same  as  that  shown  for  the  first  time. 

For  example,  the  probation  following  the  semester  that  ended 
February,  1920,  included  881  pupils.  Of  this  number,  663  (75.2%) 
were  promoted;  and  62.6  per  cent  of  the  last  group  maintained 
themselves  in  the  advanced  position.  During  this  third  period  of 
probation,  there  Was  an  unusual  situation  caused  by  so  much  ab- 
sence. Mumps  and  whooping  cough  became  so  prevalent  that  schools 
were  closed  in  some  instances  for  the  entire  second  week  of  this 
period.  As  a result,  many  of  the  Cases  that  did  not  maintain 
themselves,  were  explained  by  the  teachers  as  due  to  so  much  ab- 
sence during  the  period  when  they  were  on  trial.  For  the  three 
periods  combined,  there  was  a total  of  3141  probationers,  and  of 
this  number,  2240  (71.3%)  were  promoted. 


1 


• -J 


. 


115 


At  this  point  the  question  naturally  arises,  to  what 
extent  was  such  advancement  earned?  One  may  suspect  that  these 
pupils  of  questionable  ability  were  merely  pushed  on  and.  that 
pretty  much  the  same  old  group  of  incompetents  would  appear  each 
time,  - in  other  words,  that  dragging  these  children  into  the 
next  higher  grades  by  special  devices  would  merely  accumulate 
their  deficiencies.  Table  XXVI  answers  this  sort  of  question. 

TABLE  XXVI.  DISTRIBUTION  OF  PROBATIONERS  ACCORDING  TO  THE  NUMBER 
OF  PROBATIONS  IN  WHICH  THEY  APPEAR  AS  NON-RECOMMENDED  PUPILS 


Promoted 

Non-promo tea 

Number 

No. 

5L 

No. 

% 

FIRST  PROBATION 
1st  Only 

C1276J" 

1067 

820 

75.4 

267 

24.6 

1st  and  2nd  only 

113 

82 

72.6 

31 

27.4 

1st  and  3rd  only 

17 

15 

88.  2 

2 

11.8 

1st,  2nd,  and  3rd 

59 

44 

74,6 

15 

25.4 

SECOND  PROBATION 
2nd  Only 

( 881) 

680 

509 

74.8 

171 

25.2 

1st  and  2nd  only 

113 

83 

73.4 

30 

26.  6 

2nd  and  3rd  only 

29 

26 

89.7 

3 

10.3 

1st,  2nd  and  3rd 

59 

45 

76.3 

14 

2.3,7 

THIRD  PROBATION 
3rd  only 

( 984) 
879 

552 

62.8 

327 

37.2 

1st  and  3rd  only 

17 

14 

82.3 

3 

17.7 

2nd  and  3rd  only 

29 

17 

58.6 

12 

41.4 

1st,  2nd  and  3rd 

59 

33 

59. 3 

26 

40.7 

Total 

3141 

2240 

71.3 

901 

28.7 

I ■ 


1 


116 


a»— w 

The  striking  fact  in  Table  XXVI  is  that  pupils  who  were 
included  in  the  first  probation,  did  not  as  a rule  appear  in 
later  probations.  Likewise,  in  the  second  and  third  probation, 
pupils  included  in  the  non-recoromended  list  but  once,  constitute 
the  largest  groups.  In  the  first  probation,  127  6 were  included. 

Of  this  number  1087  did  not  appear  as  probationers  again.  Of  the 
881  pupils  in  the  second  probation,  680  were  on  neither  of  the 
other  two  lists,  and  in  the  third,  879  out  of  984  had  not  been  in- 
cluded in  former  lists.  Thus,  in  the  three  lists,  there  were  3141 
cases  of  which  3646  (84,2  per  cent)  appeared  but  once.  It  is  evi- 
dent from  this  record,  that  the  teachers  under  whom  they  worked 
during  probation,  promoted  them  on  merit. 

A comparative  study  of  these  probationers  reveals  also 
that  only  113  pupils  were  in  both  the  first  and  the  second  lists 
but  not  in  the  third.  Likewise,  only  29  were  in  the  second  and 
third  but  not  in  the  first  and  only  17  were  in  the  first  and  third 
but  not  in  the  second.  In  other  words,  only  159  of  the  total  of 
3141  cases  - or  5 per  cent  - were  cases  of  double  probation.  The 
most  interesting  group  probably,  is  composed  of  59  pupils  who  were 
in  all  three  probations.  At  first  thought  one  might  classify 
these  pupils  as  mentally  deficient.  A more  careful  consideration 
of  their  promotion  records,  however,  shows  that  many  of  them  were 
merely  borderline  pupils  who  were  weak  in  one  or  more  subjects, 
but  who  when  given  a chance  in  the  next  grade  did  about  as  well  as 
they  had  done  in  the  preceding  grade.  It  is  noted,  for  example, 
that  74.6  per  cent  of  them  were  promoted  the  first  semester,  76.3 
per  cent  the  second,  and  59.3  per  cent  the  third  semester.  Then, 


. 

. 


117 


too,  as  we  shall  point  out  later,  but  few  of  these  pupils  were 
regarded  by  the  teachers  as  mentally  defective. 

Further  data  concerning  this  promotion  plan  will  be 
considered  under  three  captions,  (i)  the  probable  causes  for  be- 
coming a probationary  pupil,  (2)  the  devices  used  by  the  teachers 
to  cause  pupils  to  maintain  themselves  and  (b)  the  effects  of  pro- 
bation on  the  scholarship  of  the  probationers  and  on  the  school  as 
a whole. 

Probable  Causes  f or  Listing  Pupils  as  Non-re  commended 

On  the  card  (E.R.6)  which  contains  in  separate  lists 
the  pupils  recommended  and  the  non- re comm ended,  an  array  of  the 
most  commonly  mentioned  causes  of  non-promotion  is  given.  Space 
was  left  wherein  the  teachers  could  write  other  causes  not  listed. 
The  ones  given  are  mentioned  in  the  following  order,-  Poor  Home 
Conditions,  Irregular  Attendance,  Defective  Physical  Condition, 
Defective  Mentally,  Wrong  Pupil  Attitude,  Poor  Social  Conditions 
and  changed  schools. 

The  teachers  were  asked  to  evaluate  these  causes  and  if 
in  their  judgment,  one  or  more  of  these  might  explain  why  the 
pupil  in  question  was  deficient  in  his  work,  the  most  probable  was 
to  be  marked  "1"  and  the  next  ”3n  and  the  third  "b" . 

Table  XXVII  which  follows  is  based  on  the  distribution 
of  the  teachers'  estimates  gathered  in  this  way.  By  assigning  to 
each  item  marked  "1"  a value  of  three  and  to  each  item  mentioned 
as  a second  or  a third  Cause,  the  value  of  two  and  one  respective- 
ly, we  were  able  to  ascertain  the  comparative  strength  of  the 


. • 


. . } 


I 


. 


■ ■ ) 


118 


items  listed.  The  column  headed  "Weighted  Value”  is  the  product 
of  the  number  of  times  reported,  and  the  corresponding  value 
given  a first,  second  or  third  cause.  Conclusions  may  be  drawn 
from  Table  XXVII.  A comparison  of  the  ranks  given  in  this  table 
reveals  the  fact  that  mental  deficiency  was  in  the  teacher's 
opinion,  the  primary  cause  of  most  of  the  non-promotion  which 
would  have  resulted  if  the  customary  procedure  had  been  followed. 
This  includes  all  Cases  that  were  classed  as  mentally  incapable 
of  greater  progress.  The  next  Cause  in  order  of  importance  as 
shown  by  its  frequency  and  character  of  mention  by  the  teachers, 
is  irregular  attendance.  Closely  following,  as  might  be  expected, 
is  wrong  attitude  towards  school  work.  In  fact,  it  is  sometimes 
hard  to  determine  whether  a pupil  Cannot  do  certain  mental  tasks 
satisfactorily  or  whether  he  does  not  try.  The  matter  of  poor 
home  conditions,  likewise,  is  often  closely  associated  with  poor 
mentality.  This  is  especially  true,  it  seems,  if  the  weakness  is 
inherited  by  the  child. 


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TABLE  XXVII,  PROBABLE  CAUSES  LISTED  IN  ORDER  OF  IMPORTANCE,  ACCORDING 

TO  COMBINED  TEACHERS'  JUDGMENT 


ISO 


The  reader's  attention  is  called  to  the  aggregate  per 
cents  in  Table  XXVII.  These  aggregates  indicate  the  proportion 
of  the  cases  for  which  a first,  second  and  third  cause  of  failure 
was  indicated.  It  is  shown,  for  example,  that  in  only  60  per- 
cent of  the  cases  did  the  teachers  when  requested  to  indicate 
causes  of  failure  ascribe  the  failure  to  any  causes  whatsoever. 

In  other  words,  in  two  out  of  five  cases  the  teacher  apparently 
had  no  notions  as  to  cause.  This  statement  is  justified  because 
although  opportunity  was  given  to  teachers  to  write  on  the  cards 
any  causes  which  were  not  specifically  set  up,  -almost  none  of 
them  did  so.  Again,  although  not  a few  teachers  indicated  but 
one  cause  for  the  failure  of  a given  pupil,  the  particular'  cause 
thus  indicated  was  regarded  in  our  tabulations  as  a first  cause. 
Consequently,  the  pupils  for  whom  no  first  cause  of  failure  was 
shown  are  pupils  concerning  whom  the  teacher  had  nothing  to  offer. 

It  will  be  noted  that  in  only  about  one-third  of  the 
cases  (32. S per  cent)  were  second  causes  given  and  that  in  only 
about  one-sixth  of  the  cases  were  third  causes  given.  This  af- 
fords a still  further  suggestion  of  the  uncritical  attitude  of 
teachers  when  making  adverse  recommendations  with  respect  to 
pupils  who  have  been  under  their  instruction.  If  this  were  the 
place  to  comment  on  this  lack  of  insight  on  the  part  of  teachers, 
we  should  be  inclined  to  give  some  prominence  to  this  condition. 

We  shall,  however,  content  our  selves  with  merely  raising  the 
question  of  whether  teachers  are  justified  in  recommending  pupils 
for  failure  when  they  apparently  know  so  little  of  the  reasons 
which  account  for  unsatisfactory  work. 


' ' 


. 


« 

. 


■ 

. 


. 


- • I 

’ 


. 


121 


Devices  Used  to  Ai d Probationary  Pupils 

The  results  of  this  study  with  probationary  pupils  have 
been  obtained  while  using  the  regular  teaching  force,  and  all 
other  conditions  excepting  a suggestive  list  of  devices  have  been 
such  as  were  existing  under  the  former  plan  of  promotion.  The 
only  distinctive  feature  of  the  new  plan  for  promotion  is  that  of 
giving  all  pupils  a chance  to  do  the  work  of  the  next  higher 
grade  krtldk  as  a basis  for  reassignment.  During  the  time  a pupil 
was  given  in  which  to  prove  his  right  to  advancement,  the  teach- 
ers were  asked  to  make  use  of  any  part  of  a list  of  suggestive 
devices  which  they  found  they  could  apply.  These  were  meant  as  a 
precaution  against  allowing  pupils  to  drop  back  into  careless 
habits  which  would  have  prevented  the  teachers  from  seeing  the 
advantages  resulting  from  this  additional  six  or  eight  weeks. 

Really  to  measure  a pupil's  ability  to  do  a grade  by 
placing-  him  in  this  grade  and  observing  his  progress,  the  pupil 
must  be  caused  to  work  somewhere  nearly  up  to  capacity.  Other- 
wise, those  who  are  observing  his  work  are  likely  to  underesti- 
mate his  ability  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  new  situation. 
The  devices  suggested  were  also  meant  to  enlist  the  cooperation 
of  the  parents  who  had  been,  in  some  instances,  indifferent  and 
uninformed  as  to  the  child's  needs  in  school.  For  example,  their 
attention  was  directed  to  the  effects  of  irregular  attendance  and 
the  need  of  more  thorough  preparation  of  the  daily  assignments. 
The  degree  to  which  these  devices  were  used  effectively,  may  be 
estimated  from  the  following  tables  which  show  for  each  device 
the  number  of  weeks  used  and  the  number  of  pupils  concerned. 


. 


* 

: . ; : 


. 


133 


Record  of  Devices  Used:  It  will  be  recalled  that  the  probation- 

ary card  (E.R.7)  provided  a convenient  means  by  which  the  re- 
ceiving teacher  could  record  the  fact  that  a device  had  been 
used,  by  simply  placing  a check  ( ) in  the  appropriate  square. 
Thus,  the  process  of  recording  the  frequency  with  which  each  de- 
vice was  employed,  was  a very  simple  matter. 

In  an  attempt  to  evaluate  each  device  in  the  light  of 
these  records,  we  have  combined  these  data  in  such  a way  as  to 
show  "the  number  of  weeks  used*1,  when  the  pro  oat  ion  ended  in  pro 
motion  and  the  number  when  the  pupil  was  not  promoted.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  aggregate  number  of  weeks  used,  we  have  also  found 
the  number  of  pupils  in  whose  interest  each  device  7/as  employed. 
These  data  are  shown  in  Table  XXVIII  and  XXIX. 


• • 

. 


123 


1“ 


TABLE  XXVIII.  COMBINED  USE  OF  DEVICES  TO  AID  PROBATIONERS 
IN  DECATUR  AND  SPRINGFIELD,  THREE  SEMESTERS. 

PUPILS  PROMOTED 


Number  of  Weeks 

Used 

Total 
No.  of 
Pupils 

Aggregate 
No.  of 
Weeks  Used 

Device 

0 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

Includ- 

ed 

Per 

Pupil 

Visit  Homes 

69 

5 

6 

8 

- 

1 

- 

- 

89 

135 

Other  Inter- 
views 

142 

103 

31 

40 

12 

30 

11 

- 

369 

908 

Outside  Help 

158 

87 

1 CO 

X 

123 

163 

439 

38 

13 

1173 

5172 

Varying 

Course 

116 

64 

88 

130 

141 

38  6 

48 

16 

979 

4533 

Varying 

Method 

110 

73 

118 

139 

313 

547 

49 

18 

1277 

7000 

Pupil  Co- 
operation 

72 

77 

100 

141 

308 

588 

53 

21 

1270 

6207 

Daily  Re- 
ports to 
Parents 

43 

46 

67 

131 

268 

736 

58 

20 

1369 

7345 

Senaing 
Work  Home 

119 

89 

103 

106 

17  6 

534 

26 

12 

1164 

5359 

124 


TABLE  XXIX.  COMBINED  USE  OF  DEVICES  TO  AID  PROBATIONERS 
IN  DECATUR  AMD  SPRINGFIELD,  THREE  SEMESTERS. 

PUPILS  NOT  PROMOTED. 


Number  of  Weeks  Used 

Total 

No.  of 

Aggregate 
of  Weeks 

Device 

0 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

Pupils 

Included 

Used  per 
Pupil 

Visit  Homes 

36 

1 

1 

1 

A 

u 

0 

0 

0 

39 

45 

Other  Inter- 
views 

86 

28 

12 

13 

16 

6 

1 

A 

V 

162 

353 

Outside  Help 

88 

60 

92 

74 

50 

114 

8 

11 

537 

3088 

Varying 

Course 

61 

44 

47 

49 

66 

161 

14 

4 

446 

1912 

Varying 

Method 

63 

70 

S7 

65 

75 

187 

13 

3 

543 

2298 

Pupil  Co- 
operation 

S9 

39 

46 

40 

90 

185 

18 

4 

491 

2123 

Daily  Re- 
ports to 
Parents 

35 

43 

49 

59 

100 

233 

18 

4 

544 

2578 

Sending 
Work  Home 

42 

39 

50 

52 

78 

148 

9 

4 

433 

18:34 

— — ' - - ■ 


125 


Table  XXVIII  reads  as  follows:  Homes  of  69  pupils 

were  visited  once,  homes  of  5 pupils  were  visited  twice,  homes  of 
6 pupils  were  visited  three  times,  etc.  In  all  there  were  135 
visits  ma.de  to  the  homes  of  89  promoted  pupils.  Over  against 
this,  Table  XXIX  shows  that  45  visits  were  made  to  homes  of  39 
pupils  who  were  not  promoted.  The  extent  to  which  these  devices 
were  effectively  used  is  illustrated  by  the  full  rerjort  on  "Daily 
Reports  to  Parents"  shown  in  Table  XXX.  This  device  was  the  one 
most  frequently  used. 

TABLE  XXX.  DAILY  REPORTS  TO  PARENTS 


Weeks 

Used 

For  Pupils 
Who  Were 
Promoted 

For  Pupil 8 
Who  Were 
Not  Promoted 

Total 

No. 

% 

No. 

w 

° 

6 and 
Over 

814 

76 

258 

24 

1072 

5 

268 

73 

100 

27 

368 

4 

131 

69 

59 

31 

190 

3 

67 

58 

49 

42 

116 

2 

46 

52 

43 

48 

89 

1 

43 

55 

35 

45 

78 

0 

871 

71 

357 

29 

1228 

Total 

2240 

— — . 

901 

3141 

We  have  already  seen  (Table  XXVIII)  that  the  total 
number  of  probationary  pupils  in  all  three  periods  was  3141. 
Table  XXX  shows  that  of  the  3141  opportunities  thus  offered  of 


126 


reporting  to  parents,  the  device  was  used  six  or  more  times  with 
814  pupils  who  were  promoted  ana  as  many  times  with  358  non-pro- 
moted  pupils.  Information  in  similar  form  is  given  as  to  the 
number  of  pupils  for  whom  the  device  was  used  five  times,  four 
times,  etc.  There  were,  however,  871  promoted  and  557  non-pro- 
moted  pupils  with  whom  the  device  was  not  used. 

It  is  apparent  from  Table  XXX  that  there  is  a relation 
between  the  extent  to  which  the  device  of  daily  reports  to  par- 
ents was  used  and  the  success  of  the  pupils  in  securing  promotion. 
The  reader  will  observe  that  when  the  device  was  used  six  or  more 
times  (as  it  was  in  1072  Cases)  76  pupils  per  hundred  consummated 
their  promotion.  When  the  device  was  used  but  five  times  only 
73  per  hundred  established  their  title  to  permanent  advancement. 
The  chances  of  success  were  still  smaller  (69-100)  among  the 
pupils  in  whose  behalf  the  device  was  used  but  four  times. 
Similarly  the  chances  diminished  when  the  device  was  used  three 
times  and  again  when  it.  was  used  twice.  In  other  woras,  it  ap- 
pears that  there  was  a steadily  declining  likelihood  of  ultimate 
promotion  as  the  number  of  uses  of  reports  to  parents  diminished 
from  "6  or  over”  to  2. 

When,  however,  the  device  was  used  but  once  or  not  at 
all,  the  chances  of  promotion  did  net  diminish.  Indeed  among  the 
pupils  for  whom  the  device  was  not  used,  the  proportion  who 
succeeded  in  securing  promotion  was  exceedingly  high.  Doubtless 
we  have  in  the  single  use  of  this  device  and  still  more  strongly 
in  the  failure  to  use  it,  the  operation  of  an  entirely 
set  of  factors.  It  is  more  than  likely  that  an  unusually  large 


number  of  these  pupils  were  put  on  probation  not  because  they 
needed  careful  attention  and  unusual  treatment,  but  merely  be- 
cause of  a previous  lack  of  opportunity  to  profit  by  instruction. 
In  other  words,  it  is  quite  likely  that  many  of  these  pupils  were 
judged  unsatisfactory  in  the  previous  gra.de  because  of  irregular 
attendance  or  recent  arrival  from  some  other  school.  Such  pupils 
might  easily  be  made  to  succeed  without  the  utilization  of  much 
of  the  special  treatment  suggested  in  any  of  these  devices. 

Whether  or  not  such  an  explanation  is  plausible,  it  is 
clear  from  the  run  of  these  figures  in  Table  XXX  that  if  the 
teachers  used  the  daily  reports  at  all,  the  more  they  used  them 
the  better  results  they  secured.  The  extent  to  which  each  device 
was  used  and  the  results  that  attended,  may  be  seen  from  Table 


XXXI. 


128 


TABLE  XXXI.  SUMMARY  OF  FREQUENCIES  OF  USE  OF  DEVICES  TO  AID 
PROBATIONARY  PUPILS.  PER  CENTS  BASED  ON  THE  3141 
OPPORTUNITIES  TO  USE  EACH  DEVICE. 


Number  of  Times  Used 

Devices 

For  Pupils 
Promoted  at  End 
of  Probation 

For  Pupils  Not 
Promoted  at  End 
of  Probation 

Total 

No. 

% 

No. 

(<7 

!°.  . 

No. 

h 

Visiting  Homes 

89 

2.8 

39 

1.2 

128 

•4.0 

Other  Interviews, 
Parents 

369 

11.7 

163 

5.2 

531 

16.9 

Help  Outside 
School  Hours 

1172 

37.3 

537 

7.0 

1709 

54.3 

Varying  the 
Course  of  Study 

979 

31.2 

446 

14.2 

1425 

45.4 

Varying  the 
Teaching  Method 

1277 

40.7 

543 

17.3 

1820 

58.0 

Pupil  Cooperation 

1270 

40.4 

491 

15.6 

1761 

53.  0 

Daily  Reports  to 
Parent  s 

13  69 

43.6 

544 

17.3 

1913 

60.9 

pending  Work  Home 

1164 

37.1 

422 

13.4 

1586 

50.5 

According  to  Table  XXXI,  there  were  only  12to  Cases  of 
home  visitation  and  only  531  cases  (16.9  per  cent)  of  any  other 
form  of  interview  with  parents.  These  figures  are  significant 
when  one  compares  them  with  what  they  would  have  been  if  the 
teachers  had  averaged  one  interview  for  each  probationer  (3141). 
Only  4 per  cent  of  the  probationers'  homes  were  visited.  One  of 
the  most  popular  admonitions  among  teachers  when  they  attempt  to 
express  their  ideal  relations  to  the  home,  is  that  which  suggests 


129 


the  necessity  of  teachers  visiting  the  homes  and  talking  over  the 
pupils1  work.  Yet,  at  a time  when  an  extra  effort  was  being  made 
to  understand  the  pupils  who  had  done  unsatisfactory  work,  out  of 
33  schools  studied,  only  128  cases  of  home  visitation  were  re- 
corded in  a period  of  three  semesters.  This  is  an  average  of  less 
than  one  visit  a school  each  semester.  Teachers,  as  a rule,  do 
not  visit  the  homes  or  otherwise  seek  to  hold  interview's  with 
parents.  The  other  devices,  also,  are  used  with  less  regularity 
than  is  sometimes  supposed. 

Effects  of  the  Probationary  Period  on  Scholarship:  The  individ- 

ual card  which  was  kept  (1)  for  all  non- recommended  pupils  and 
(2)  for  such  marginal  pupils  as,  in  the  judgment  of  the  Various 
teachers,  could  profit  by  special  attention  of  this  kind,  con- 
tains a weekly  record  by  which  n satisfactory”  and  "unsatisfactory" 
work  is  shown  for  each  major  subject. 

From  this  scholarship  report  it  has  been  possible  to 
compute  the  improvement  in  terms  of  gain  or  loss  by  comparing 
wlzh  the  standing  of  the  previous  semester.  This  was  done  by 
counting  improvement  in  one  or  more  subjects  as  "gain"  provided 
that  it  was  not  accompanied  by  a corresponding  loss  in  other  sub- 
jects. By  this  method  of  computation,  with  an  average  S (satis- 
factory) but  with  certain  subjects  lower  than  passing,  the  pupil 
was  registered  as  "gain"  if  he  raised  the  low  subjects  and  held 
his  own  in  the  ones  in  which  he  had  made  a passing  mark.  Loss, 
likewise,  implies  that  the  scholarship  dropped  subject  by  sub- 
ject, or  on  the  average. 


. 


. 


130 


To  enable  us  to  estimate  the  strength  of  changing  teach- 
ers, as  a determining  factor  in  improvement,  these  data  were 
treated  in  a fourfold  classification  as  shown  in  Table  XXXII. 

This  table  shows  that  773  (70.3  per  cent)  cases  out  of  1100  pro- 
bationers who  had  the  same  teachers  in  both  semesters, were  pro- 
moted. Many,  if  not  all  of  these,  probably,  were  advanced  be- 
cause the  receiving  teacher  was  convinced  that  the  more  advanced 
grade  was  more  nearly  in  accord  with  what  the  work  of  the  proba- 
tionary period  showed  they  could  do  with  profit. 

TABLE  XXXII.  THE  NUMBER  OF  PROBATIONERS  WITH  SAME  OR 
WITH  DIFFERENT  TEACHERS 


Same  Teacher 

Different  Teacher 

o 

No. 

Jo 

Promoted 

773 

70.3 

1467 

71.9 

Not  Promoted 

327 

29.7 

574 

28.1 

Totud 

1100 

— - 

2041 

--  - 

Wren  the  teacher  was  different,  71.9  per  cent  of  the 
group  were  promoted.  Evidently,  changing  teachers  was  not  an 
important  factor  in  determining  a pupil’s  success  in  maintaining 
probationary  standing. 

The  number  of  pupils  according  as  they  gained  or  lost, 
is  shown  in  Tables  XXXIII  to  XXXVII. 


. 


• 

* 

. 

. 


131 


TABLE  XXXIII.  EFFECTS  OF  PROBATIONARY  PERIOD  ON  SCHOLARSHIP 

STANDING  OF  F ON-RECOMMENDED  GROUP. 

RESULTING  IN  PROMOTION. 


Probation 
in  Which 
Participated 

Mark 

Showed 

Gain 

Mark 

Showed 

Same 

Mark 

Showed 

Loss 

Total 

1st  Only 

618 

189 

13 

820 

2nd  Only 

347 

148 

14 

50S 

3rd  Only 

441 

111 

0 

552 

1st  and  2nd 

122 

38 

5 

165 

1st  and  3rd 

3? 

1 

1 

29 

2nd  and  3rd 

23 

17 

3 

45 

All  Three 

8S 

32 

4 

122 

Total 

1634 

536 

40 

2240 

TABLE  XXXIV.  EFFECTS  OF  PROBATIONARY  PERIOD  ON  SCHOLARSHIP 
STANDING  OF  NON-PROMOTED  PROBATIONERS. 


Probation 
in  Which 
Participated 

Mark 

Showed 

Gain 

Mark 

Showed 

Same 

Mark 

Showed 

Loss 

Total 

1st  Only 

39 

196 

32 

367 

2nd  Only 

17 

137 

17 

171 

3rd  Only 

10 

312 

K 

337 

1st  and  2nd 

10 

46 

5 

61 

1st  and  3rd 

1 

4 

0 

5 

2nd  and  3rd 

3 

9 

• 3 

15 

All  Three 

2 

51 

2 

55 

Total 

82 

755 

54 

901 

132 


TABLE  XXXV.  EFFECTS  OF  PROBATIONARY  PERIOD. 

LOSS  OR  GAIN.  PUPILS  PROMOTED. 


Probation  in 
Which 

Participated. 

Mark 

Showed 

Gain 

Mark 

Showed 

Loss 

1st  Only 

75.4 

1.6 

2nd  Only 

63.1 

2.8 

3rd  Only 

80.0 

C 

1st  and  2nd 

70,5 

3.0 

1st  and  3rd 

93.1 

3.5 

2nd  and  3rd 

53.  5 

6.9 

All  Three 

70.5 

3.3 

Total 

74.8 

1.8 

TABLE  XXXVI.  EFFECTS  OF  PROBATIONARY  PERIOD. 

GAIN  OR  LOSS.  PUPILS  NOT  PROMOTED 


Probation  in 
Which 

Participated 

Mark 

Showed 

Gain 

Mark 

Showed 

Loss 

1st  Only 

14,7 

12.0 

2nd  Only 

9.9 

9.9 

3rd  Only 

3.0 

1.5 

1st  and  2nd 

16.4 

8.2 

1st  and  3rd 

20.0 

0 

2nd  and  3rd 

20,0 

20.0 

All  Three 

4.0 

4.0 

Total 

9.1 

7.1 

PER  CENT 


PER  CENT 


. 


133 


Table  XXXIII  and  XXXIV  give  the  number  of  pupils  accord- 
ing as  they  gained,  remained  the  same,  or  lost  in  scholarship  rat- 
ing as  a result  of  the  probation.  The  per  cent  of  pupils  who 
gained  and  the  per  cent  that  lost  in  scholarship  standing  in  each 
probation  is  shown  in  Tables  XXXV  and  XXXVI.  The  first  of  these 
tables  shows  the  results  for  the  promoted  group.  It  snows  that 

74.8  per  cent  of  2240  pupils  gained  in  scholarship  as  against 

1.8  per  cent  who  lost. 

In  the  non-promoted  group  of  probationers,  9.1  per  cent 
of  the  901  gained  and  7,1  per  cent  lest.  In  both  groups  there 
was  evidence  of  gain  in  the  general  level  of  scholarship  of  the 
entire  group  of  non-re commended  pupils  as  a result  of  probation, 
although,  as  would  be  expected,  the  preponderance  of  gain  was 
made  by  the  pupils  who  succeeded  in  maintaining  themselves  in  the 
higher  grade. 

Comparative  Scholarship  Levels  of  the  Schools 

One  of  the  conditions  by  which  the  value  of  any  scheme 
of  promotion  should  be  judged  is  the  influence  it  has  on  the  gen- 
eral level  of  scholarship  for  the  system.  That  is  to  say,  the 
administrator  has  the  twofold  duty  of  adapting  the  school  to  the 
needs  of  the  individual  and  at  the  same  time  he  must  maintain 
reasonably  high  standard  of  scholarship.  To  this  end,  one  of  the 
provisions  in  our  experiment  was  that  the  pupil  should  do  in  the 
advanced  position  work  “as  satisfactory  to  the  teacher  concerned” 
as  that  which  he  had  been  doing  in  the  former  grade.  This  im- 
plies that  the  probationer  shall  do  on  an  average,  as  good  work 
as  he  was  doing  in  the  previous  grade,  thus  preventing  a drop 


134 


in  the  general  average  of  scholarship  for  the  school.  Moreover, 
the  teachers'  estimates  must  remain  the  principal  criterion  for 
advancement.  These  judgments  are  based  on  the  facts  of  the  whole 
situation. 

Since  such  a plan  as  that  indicated  above  calls  fcr  ex- 
tra consideration  of  the  failing  pupils,  the  question  very  na- 
turally arises  as  to  the  consequent  influence  it  will  have  on  the 
work  of  the  more  capable  pupils,  and  on  the  average  scholarship 
of  the  whole  group.  To  ascertain  whether  our  scheme  would  have 
any  bad  effects  in  this  way,  the  scholastic  ratings  which  had 
been  reported  to  the  parents  in  the  regular  way  were  secured  fcr 
all  the  pupils  for  three  semesters  (about  12,000  marks  a se- 
mester), The  first  of  these  semesters  Was  the  one  just  prior  to 
the  installation  of  our  experiment.  These  ratings  were  averaged 
separately  for  the  33  schools  by  grade  and  subject.  The  results 
are  shown  in  Tables  XXXVII,  XXXVIII  and  XXXIX. 


. 


- 


* 


* 


135 


= 

TABLE  XXXVII.  THE  GENERAL  LEVEL  OF  SCHOLARSHIP  FOR  THREE 
SUCCESSIVE  SEMESTERS,  ALL  GRADES  AND  ALL 
SUBJECTS  COMBINED 


School 

Scholarship  Average  for 

Semester 
Endi ng 
Feb,  1919 

Semester  : 
Ending  : 
June,  1919  : 

Semester 
Ending 
Feb.  1919 

1 

80.7 

77.4  : 

83.2 

2 

86.3 

82.2  : 

80.6 

3 

75.9 

79.3  : 

82.  6 

4 

79.2 

82,3  : 

80.4 

5 

80.0 

78.0  : 

81.9 

6 

81.9 

82.3  : 

80.4 

7 

80.1 

82.1  : 

79.6 

8 

79.  6 

78.5  : 

76.8 

9 

75.8 

80.8  : 

81.2 

10 

76.4 

80.7  : 

79.3 

11 

79.1 

80.8  : 

80.7 

12 

80.3 

81.2  : 

82.5 

13 

77.8 

78.7  : 

80.  4 

14 

80.8 

83.3  : 

78.9 

15 

81.8 

80.1  : 

81,9 

16 

75.3 

75.1  : 

78.8 

17 

77.2 

79.4  : 

79.5 

18 

75.9 

79.4  : 

83.2 

19 

79.0 

76.4  : 

82.1 

20 

86.3 

81.5  : 

87.7 

31 

79.9 

87.5  : 

87.3 

22 

86.2 

84.4  : 

88.5 

23 

84.7 

86.5  : 

84.5 

24 

80.  6 

80.0  : 

82.  6 

35 

85.0 

83.3  : 

83.8 

36 

85.5 

83.3  : 

83.  6 

27 

80.8 

83.2  : 

84.5 

28 

81.3 

82.2  : 

89,7 

39 

82.7 

84.6  : 

82.5 

30 

81.1 

82.3  : 

82.7 

31 

79.1 

80.9  : 

83.3 

32 

79.7 

81.0  : 

8 6.  2 

33 

79.0 

78.6  : 

83.5 

All 

80.4 

81,1  : 

83.  6 

136 


TABLE  XXXVIII.  COMPARISON  OF  SCHOLARSHIP  BY  GRADES  IN  ALL 
TEE  SCHOOLS  OF  DECATUR  AND  SPRINGFIELD 


Average  Ratings 

: Grade 

First  Ssmester 

Second  Semester 

Third  Semester 

: 1A 

77.8 

76.8 

85.8 

: 3B 

75.1 

78.3 

79.7 

: 3A 

83.6 

77.3 

83.4 

: 3B 

78.7 

81.0 

79.4 

: 3A 

83.6 

8C.9 

83.8 

: 4B 

76.8 

83.7 

82.1 

: 4A 

77.4 

83.3 

84.3 

: 5B 

78.8 

83.9 

85.3 

: 5A 

83. C 

83.9 

84.2 

: SB 

84.1 

82.5 

83.8 

: SA 

83.3 

85. 3 

82.5 

: 7B 

80.7 

81.2 

81 .2 

: 7 A 

79.4 

7S.1 

92.5 

: 8B 

85.6 

80.0 

79.8 

: 8A 

81.5 

85.3 

84.0 

: All 

80.4 

81.1 

82.2 

137 


TABLE  XXXIX.  COMPARISON  OF  SCHOLARSHIP  BY  SUBJECTS,  ALL 
GRADES  AMD  ALL  SCHOOLS  COMBINED 


Subject 

First  Semester 

Second  Semester 

Third  Semester 

Reading 

81.4 

82.3 

82.8 

Arithmetic 

79.0 

82.2 

80.8 

Language 

80.4 

78.5 

83.0 

Geography 

78.9 

79.5 

81.7 

History 

78.9 

82. 8 

82.9 

Spelling 

81.6 

81.4 

83.3 

Total 

80.4 

81.1 

82.2 

These  tables,  if  the  ratings  of  the  school  can  be  re- 
lied on,  indicate  that  the  advantages  gained  by  this  promotion 
scheme  are  not  obtained  at  the  expense  of  lowering  the  standard 
of  scholarship.  In  24  of  the  schools,  the  general  averages  were 
raised.  This  rise  is  most  marked  in  schools  3,  IS  and  32.  In 
School  Mo.  2,  ore  of  the  smallest  schools,  there  was  a drop  of 
5.7  per  cent  for  no  apparent  reason.  This  school  exceeded  all  the 
others  in  the  number  of  rooms  with  100  per  cent  promotions.  For 
this  reason,  it  cannot  be  claimed  that  the  plan  of  promotions 
caused  the  teachers  to  give  too  much  attention  to  the  failing 
group,  in  fact,  the  experiment  created  less  disturbance  in  this 
school  than  in  any  other  of  the  system. 

The  average  for  the  first  19  schools  is  made  up  from 
ratings  that  were  recorded  by  the  teachers  in  figures.  The  aver- 
age ratings  of  the  last  14  schools  shown  in  Table  XXXVII  are 


* 


t 


138 


taken  from  records  expressed  in  letters,  by  taking-  the  middle 
points  between  E (90-100)  G (80-90),  and  so  on,  as  values  for 
E,  G,  F and.  P.  Sometimes  the  grade  U appeared  in  the  recoras. 

This  Was  counted  as  P,  Such  a treatment  of  grades  may  explain 
why  one  system  of  schools  consistently  varied  from  the  other,  but 
the  averages  on  the  whole,  are  about  the  same  for  the  two  systems. 

Further  light  on  the  question  of  scholarship  of  pupils 
before  and  during  the  experimental  period  may  be  gathered  from 
Tables  XXXVIII  and  XXXIX.  All  these  data  tend  to  show  that  the 
schools  did  not  ao  inferior  work  when  the  pupils  were  promoted  on 
the  basis  of  ability  to  do  the  work  of  the  next  higher  grade, 
this  ability  being  judged  by  the  teachers  themselves. 

Conclusions  Based  on  tne  Dec^tur-Springfield  Experiment 

By  making  "Ability  to  do  the  work  of  the  next  higher 
grade",  the  standard  by  which  to  judge  a pupil's  fitness  for  pro- 
motion, the  rate  of  promotion  in  the  public  schools  may  be  mater- 
ially increased.  This  plan  will  reduce  retardation  by  working 
pupils  more  nearly  up  to  capacity.  It  has  other  desirable  ad- 
vantages and  but  few,  if  any,  disadvantages. 

Pupils  promoted  in  this  way  do  work  of  equal  or  better 
quality,  as  a rule,  than  that  which  they  do  under  the  old  plan 
of  advancement.  Emphasis  is  placed  on  ability  as  evidenced  by 
doing  the  work  itself,  rather  than  ability  as  shown  in  other 
work  that  is  supposed  to  be  prerequisite.  The  outstanding  virtue 
of  such  a scheme,  in  fact,  is  the  freedom  which  it  allows,  from 
the  necessity  of  relying  on  the  results  of  formal  examinations 


I ' 

. 


- 





139 


as  a criterion  by  which  to  judge  a pupil's  ability  to  do  the  work 
of  a grade  in  which  he  has  never  been  enrolled. 

In  our  experiment,  approximately  three  of  every  four 
pupils  who  were  recommended  to  repeat  according  to  the  usual 
plan,  were  able  by  this  change  of  emphasis  to  convince  the  same 
group  of  teachers  that  such  repetition  should  not  be  required. 
Among  the  pupils  net  recommended  for  promotion  at  the  time  for 
regular  reclassification,  3240  or  71.3  per  cent  of  the  group  of 
probationers  maintained  themselves  satisfactorily  to  the  teachers 
concerned  when  given  an  opportunity  to  prove  their  ability  to  do 
the  y/ork  of  the  advanced  grade. 

Such  pupils,  as  a rule,  did  not  appear  in  the  later 
lists  of  probationers.  Of  the  127S  probation  pupils  included  in 
the  first  list,  for  example,  only  113  were  included  again  in  the 
second  but  not  in  the  third;  17  in  the  first  and  third  only,  and 
59  in  all  three.  Of  680  on  probation  the  second  semester,  29 
were  also  in  the  third.  An  individual  study  of  this  last  group 
disclosed  the  fact  that  many  of  these  pupils  are  not  distinctly 
inferior  in  mentality.  The  mental  tests  (described  elsewhere) 
given  to  such  pupils  as  were  questioned  in  this  regard  by  their 
teachers  were  not  given  to  more  than  half  of  this  group,  showing 
that  the  rest  were  not  classified  by  their  teachers  as  question- 
able pupils.  Their  appearance  in  all  three  probation  groups  was 
probably  due  mainly  to  changing  schools  during  the  probationary 
period,  to  poor  attendance  and  to  "just  being  slow". 

Irregular  attendance  was  here  one  of  the  most  potent 
factors  responsible  for  pupils  being  listed  to  repeat  a grade. 


■ 


t 


- . , V 


- 


. 

. 

. 


140 


Other  causes  of  approximately  the  same  strength  we re  wrong  pupil- 
attitude  and  the  teachers’  conviction  that  the  pupils  were  al- 
ready classified  as  high  as  they  could  do  good  work. 

The  advantages  this  scheme  of  advancement  offers  to  the 
questionable  group  are  not  accompanied  by  corresponding  disad- 
vantages to  the  stronger  group.  The  average  scholarship  for  all 
the  pupils  in  all  the  subjects  increased  every  semester  of  the 
experiment.  (Table  XXXVII) 

Cri tic ism 

No  reports  shewing  a dislike  for  this  scheme  came  from 
the  pupils.  Some  of  them,  on  the  other  hand,  made  such  inquiries 
as  expressed  a aesire  to  have  the  plan  continued.  The  teachers 
also,  made  no  complaints,  except  that  some  of  them  expressed  the 
fear  that  we  were  crowding  the  pupils  along  faster  than  they 
should  go.  On  the  whole,  the  plan  met  hearty  approval  from  pu- 
pils, teachers  and  parents.  It  removes  the  temptation  from  the 
teacher  who  is  inclined  to  blame  the  advancing  teacher  for  pro- 
moting pupils  who  do  poor  work  in  the  advanced  grade  and  gives 
the  pupils  the  benefit  of  any  doubt  in  the  matter.  It  also  gives 
flexibility  without  radical  change  in  the  existing  promotional 
machinery  in  the  public  schools. 


141 


C H A P T E R VII 

MENTAL  TESTS  IN  THE  DECATUR-SPRINGFIELD  EXPERIMENT 

It  was  not  a part  of  the  original  plan  of  the  experi- 
ment at  Decatur  and  Springfield  to  give  mental  tests.  Early  in 
our  study,  however,  the  superintendents  suggested  that  we  give 
mental  tests  to  the  pupils  about  whom  the  teachers  had  serious 
doubts  as  to  ability  to  do  work  of  a higher  grade.  It  was  agreed, 
therefore,  to  give  group  tests  to  all  pupils  who  were  thus  select- 
ed by  the  teachers. 

Tests  Used 

Because  of  apparent  irregularities  in  the  results  of 
the  group  point  scale  as  used  in  the  Danville  experiment,  (See 
Chapter  IV)  we  used  different  tests  in  the  subsequent  testing. 

At  this  time,  however,  group  testing  had  not  been  sufficiently 
developed  to  offer  much  choice  in  the  matter.  In  the  absence  of 
other  standardised  mental  tests  that  would  serve  our  purposes,  it 
was  thought  that  a satisfactory  test  might  be  obtained  by  taking 
the  best  parts  of  tests  of  known  value,  and  adapting  them  to  our 
needs.  This,  of  course,  necessitated  working  out  new  standards 
which  was  done  from  the  scores  of  all  the  children  in  three  of 
the  largest  schools.  The  tests  selected  for  this  purpose  at  the 
suggestion  of  the  Bureau  of  Educational  Research  are  the  follow- 
ing: 


142 


1.  For  grades  up  to  fourth,  Pressey's  Primer 
So ale. 

2.  For  grades  3 and  4,  a combination  of  the 
number- che eking  from  the  army  test,  together  with  a 
modification  of  the  "Army  Opposites  Test”  and  Holley's 
Sentence-Vocabulary  Test. 

3.  For  grades  5 to  8,  the  combination  was 
slightly  different.  The  same  opposites  and  vocabu- 
lary tests,  as  above,  were  used  and  these  were  supple- 
mented by  an  8-minute  arithmetic  test  from  Theison's 
Classification  Test  and  a 5-minute  arithmetic  test 
which  is  a modification  of  one  of  the  army  arithmetic 
tests. 


How  the  Tests  ^ere  Given 

These  individual  tests  were  combined  in  separate  fold- 
ers for  each  group  of  grades.  The  folders  contained  explicit 
directions  for  each  test.  These  were  all  gone  over  with  the 
supervisors  who  subsequently  assisted  Dr.  Holley  in  testing  part 
of  the  rooms.  The  remainder  of  the  testing  was  done  by  the  super- 
visors assisted  by  the  principals,  or  teachers.  The  papers  were 
assembled  according  to  grade  and  sent  to  the  Bureau  of  Educational 
Research,  where  they  were  scored  by  the  writer,  and  standards  were 
derived  from  the  results. 

Use  Made  of  the  Results  of  the  Tesbs 

The  scores  of  all  the  pupils  in  the  Gastman  School  in 
Decatur  and  in  the  two  schools.  Central  Junior  High  and  Hays- 
Edwards  in  Springfield,  were  made  the  basis  of  the  standard  scores. 
Table  XL  gives  the  distribution  of  I.  Q's  computed  on  these  scores 
by  combining  the  mental  ages  indicated  by  the  different  tests  and 
dividing  the  average  of  these  mental  ages  by  the  chronological  age 


■ 

. 


, 

' 


143 

to  the  nearest  month. 


TABLE  XL. . .DISTRIBUTION  OF  I.  Q's  OF  PUPILS  IN 
THE  STANDARDIZING  SCHOOLS 


I.  Q. 

No,  Pupils 

I.  Q. 

No.  Pupils 

I.  Q. 

No.  Pupils 

0-49 

1 

80-84 

68 

115-119 

33 

50-54 

1 

85-89 

84 

120-124 

15 

55-59 

7 

90-84 

80 

125-129 

7 

60-64 

6 

95-99 

105 

130-134 

4 

65-69 

20 

100-104 

81 

135-139 

3 

70-74 

30 

105-109 

63 

140-144 

2 

75-79 

63 

110-114 

39 

145-149 

2 

Total  717 

In  addition  to  the  pupils  tested  as  above  indicated,  teachers  from 
the  various  other  schools  in  both  systems  were  asked  to  select 
pupils  who,  in  their  judgment,  were  borderline  pupils  or  pupils 
of  decidedly  low  mentality.  Among  these  pupils  there  happened  to 
be  a few  about  whom  the  teachers  knew  but  little.  Other  pupils 
included  in  this  list  had  been  found  subnormal  by  the  Stanford 
Revision  of  the  Binet  Test.  The  distribution  of  all  these  pupils 
by  assigned  grade  as  indicated  by  these  tests,  as  well  as  by  the 
school  grade  in  which  they  were  classified,  is  shown  in  Table  XLI. 


144 


TABLE  XLI  DISTRIBUTION  OF  PUPILS  BY  SCHOOL  GRADE  AND  BY  THE 
THEORETICAL  GRADE  IN  WHICH  THEY  WOULD  BE  CLASSIFIED 
IF  PLACED  ACCORDING  TO  MENTAL  AGE 


School 

Grade 

Grade  indicated  by  mental  age. 

K 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

A 

O 

7 

8 

Total 

I 

9 

10 

1 

1 

31 

II 

17 

43 

23 

14 

8 

105 

III 

9 

45 

49 

9 

1 

1 

114 

IV 

1 

3 

13 

45 

23 

8 

2 

95 

V 

11 

15 

18 

9 

4 

2 

2 

61 

VI 

3 

12 

18 

15 

12 

1 

61 

VII 

1 

6 

14 

7 

3 

3 

34 

VIII 

1 

2 

2 

5 

Total 

27 

65 

97 

135 

83 

47 

27 

8 

7 

496 

The  above  table  should,  be  read  as  follows,-  nine  pupils  in  first 
grade,  17  in  second  and  one  in  fourth  had  mental  ages  of  kinder- 
garten standard.  The  greatest  number  of  pupils  (S7  ana  135)  of 
any  of  the  school  grades  are  found  in  the  second  and  third  grades. 
Likewise  the  greatest  numbers  by  the  mental  age  assignment,  are 
in  the  second  and  third  grades  (1C5  and  114),  The  correspondence 
in  assignments  to  grades  suggests  that  many  of  the  pupils  who 
were  given  the  mental  tests  were  found  to  be  properly  assigned. 

In  all  the  school  grades,  there  are  pupils  ranging  in  ability  as 
much  as  three  to  six  grades.  In  grade  V,  for  example,  11  of  the 


145 

61  pupils  showed  a mental  age  of  a second-grade  standard  and  two 
of  this  group,  all  of  whom  were  selected  as  poor,  had  mentality 
of  an  eighth-grade  scandard. 

The  range  of  scores  for  the  different  mental  ages, 
(Standards  Table  XLII)  as  determined  from  the  data  from  the  three 
schools  in  which  all  the  pupils  were  tested  is  as  follows: 

TABLE  XLII  STANDARDS  FOR  MENTAL  TESTS,  BASED  ON  THE 
WHOLE  ATTENDENCE  IN  GASTMAN,  HAYES -EDWARDS  AND 
CENTRAL  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOLS 


Vocabulary  Test  (Information) 

Age:  8-  8.9:  9-  9.9:10-10.9:11-11.9:13-12.9:13-13.9:14-14.9: 

M 5 Ml 5 M32  M29  M36  M43  M50 

Scores:  ( 0-1C)  (11-18)  (19-35)  (26-32)  (33-39)  (40-46)  (47-53) 

15-15.9:1 6-16. 9: 17-17 .9:18-18 . 9: 19-19. 9: 

M57  M65  M74  M83  M90 

(54-60)  (31-69)  (70-78)  (78-86)  (87-93) 

Arithmetic  Test  (5-Minute  and  8-Minute) 

6-  6.9:  7-  7.9:  8-  8.9:  9-  9.9:10-10.9:11-11.9:12-13.9: 
( 0 ) ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3-  5)  ( 4-  8)  ( 9-12)  (13-14) 
13-13.9:14-14.9:15-15.9:16-16.9:17-17.9: 

(15-17)  (18-21)  (22-26)  (27-33)  (33-36) 

Number  Checking 

5-  5.9:  6-  6.9:  7-  7.9:  8-  8.9:  9-  9.9:10-10.9: 

( 0-  6)  ( 7-11)  (12-13)  (14-  ) (15-15)  (17-20) 


' ' : '■  " ■ 


146 

Opposites 

7-  7.9:  8-  8.S:  9-  9.9:10-10.9:11-11.9:12-12.9:13-13.9: 

( 0-  2)  ( 3-  ) ( 4-  ) ( 5-  ) ( 6-  7)  ( 8-  9)  (10-14) 
14-14.9:15-15.9:16-16.9: 

(15-20)  (21-26)  (27-32) 

Pressey  Primer 

4-  4.9: ‘5-  5.9:  6-  6.9:  7-  7.9:  8-  8.9:  9-  9.9:10-10.9:11-11.9: 
( 0-14)  (15-34)  (35-50)  (51-62)  (63-69)  (70-78)  (79-84)  (85-95) 

The  Individual  Scores 

Reports  of  these  mental  scores  were  given  back  to  the 
schools  as  additional  data  to  guide  in  the  proper  placement  of 
pupils  of  questionable  ability.  It  was  suspected  that  many  of 
these  pupils  belonged  in  special  classes  and  that  others  of  the 
group  tested  should  be  doing  work  in  a higher  grade.  These  sus- 
picions are  confirmed  by  the  results  of  these  tests  and  in  the 
most  pronounced  cases,  such  changes  were  made  by  the  superintend- 
ent . 

It  is  evident  that  a part  of  the  retardation  in  these 
schools  is  due  to  the  incapacity  of  the  pupils  to  do  the  ordinary 
work  of  the  classroom.  No  scheme  of  promotion  can  overcome  this 
deficiency  but  the  school  can  adjust  the  type  of  classroom  pro- 
cedure to  the  peculiar  needs  of  such  pupils  when  they  are  located 
and  when  the  nature  of  their  difficulties  is  discerned.  On  the 
theory  that  children  who  are  off  grade  more  than  a year  either 
way  from  normal  should  be  given  special  attention  to  ascertain 


147 


their  individual  needs,  all  of  these  pupils  were  assigned  to  the- 
oretical grades  on  the  basis  of  their  mental  ages.  These  grades 
are  computed  by  assuming  that  mentally  six  years  old  is  the  prop- 
er age  to  enter  school  and,  moreover,  that  normal  progress  is  a 
grade  a year,  thus  making  mentally  14  years  old,  the  proper  age 
to  enter  high  school  after  completing  the  eight  elementary  grades. 
While  this  assignment  is  not  exact  (nor  in  the  very  nature  of 
things  can  it  be)  it  does  give  the  administrator  and  teachers  a 
working  basis  for  assignment. 

Following  the  above  plan,  the  pupils  were  listed  by 
name  and  grade  and  the  results  of  the  assignments  by  mental  age 
were  reported  back  to  the  schools  where,  in  some  instances,  this 
additional  information  was  used  in  connection  with  what  other  data 
the  teacher  possessed  regarding  the  individual  pupils  to  guide  in 
determining  whether  the  pupils  were  working  up  to  capacity.  This 
was  the  principal  use  made  of  mental  tease. 

In  this  connection,  also,  the  probationers  were  studied 
to  see  if  the  teachers'  estimates  of  the  pupils'  capacity  were 
borne  out  by  the  tests.  The  53  pupils,  who  were  probationers  each 
semester,  for  example,  were  studied  individually  to  see  if  this 
recurrence  as  probationer  was  due  to  limited  mentality.  Contrary 
to  what  one  might  expect,  it  was  found  that  only  about  one  in  four 
had  been  selected  by  the  teachers  to  take  the  tests. 


* 


. 


148 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  PROMOTIONS  IN  RELATION  TO  REPEATERS 
Basic  Theory  in  Repetition 

Who  Should  Repeat?  One  of  the  most  serious  phases  of  the  problem 
of  proper  promotions  in  the  public  schools  comes  from  causing 
pupils  to  repeat  all  the  work  of  a grade  in  part  of  which  they 
have  failed  to  secure  a passing  mark.  The  situation  sometimes 
presents  to  the  teacher  a perplexing  problem.  If  she  promotes 
the  pupils  of  questionable  ability,  she  fears  that  she  may  there- 
by lower  the  standards  of  her  work  and  of  the  school  as  well. 
There  is  also  danger  of  placing  the  pupils  in  a grade  in  which 
they  can  not  get  much  profit.  On  the  other  hand,  the  pupils  may 
be  large  for  their  grade;  they  may  be  able  to  do  good  work  in  two 
or  more  subjects;  while  some  may  be  working  up  to  ability  in  a 
type  of  work  which  is  not  well  suited  to  them.  To  promote  them 
may  result  in  encouraging  them  to  put  forth  their  best  efforts, 
and  they  may  do  as  good  quality  of  work  in  the  advanced  grade  as 
in  the  preceding  one.  If  so,  such  pupils  by  such  advancements, 
would  get  training  in  the  direction  of  success  rather  than  in 
failure. 

In  many  such  situations  the  determining  factor  has  been 
the  notion  that  repetition  of  a grade  will  result  in  pupils  get- 
ting the  work  "better”.  Because  of  such  a belief  pupils  are  re- 
quired to  repeat  grades,  and  a promotion  rate  of  80-90  per  cent 


149 


of  the  attendance  throughout  the  country  is  the  result.  For  this 
reason,  also,  the  schools  continue  to  have  30-50  per  cent  of  the 
enrollment  over-age. 

The  question  of  repeating  grades  should  be  thoroughly 
investigated  to  ascertain  what  advantages  the  repeaters  really 
derive  from  the  customary  type  of  repetition.  If  it  is  a profit- 
able procedure  we  should  have  something  more  than  traditional  be- 
lief as  a basis  for  this  time-honored  practice.  If  repetition, 
as  has  been  maintained  by  certain  investigators,  does  not  cause 
a pupil  to  do  better  work,  then,  because  of  the  bad  results  which 
often  attend  repetition,  the  practice  should  be  modified  or  abol- 
ished. 

Repetition,  No  Alternative:  Before  the  day  of  special  rooms  with 

modified  courses  of  study  and  other  departures  from  the  routine 
of  the  regular  course,  the  administrator  was  probably  more  justi- 
fied than  now  in  requiring  indiscriminate  repetition.  Then  there 
was  nothing  else  to  do  if  the  pupil  failed  to  make  the  required 
marks.  Now  there  is  a tendency  to  ask  in  what  course  and  where 
in  the  system  should  the  Individual  pupil  be  placed  that  the 
school  may  do  the  most  for  him.  This  is  a tendency  away  from  the 
practice  of  requiring  pupils  who  are  already  too  old  for  their 
grades  to  repeat  the  identical  studies  in  which  they  have  just 
failed. 

Is  Such  Repetition  Justified  by  the  Results  Obtained?  Because 
this  is  one  of  the  important  questions  which  is  pressing  upon  the 
administrator  for  an  adequate  solution  and  because  of  the  light 
that  any  information  on  this  topic  would  throw  on  our  problem. 


. 

' 


150 


1 • **. 


one  of  the  units  of  non- re commended  pupils  included  in  our  study 
was  investigated  as  to  the  probable  influence  repetition  of  form- 
er grades  had  on  their  subsequent  work.  This  group  of  pupils  con- 
stitute the  19?  pupils  of  Decatur,  who  were  not  recommended  for 
promotion  in  June,  1919.  The  distribution  of  this  group  by  grades 
is  shown  in  Table  XLIII. 

TABLE  XLIII. . .DISTRIBUTION  OF  IS?  PUPILS  WHO  WERE  NOT  RECOMMENDED 
FOR  PROMOTION  IN  THE  DECATUR  SCHOOLS,  JUNE,  1919. 


Present 

:Nc.  : 

Insuff i- 

rNo.Hav- 

: No. Having 

Failures 

as  Indicated 

Grade 

tPupils: 

• t 

• ♦ 

cient  Re- 
cord 

ting  No 
: Failures 

• 

: 1 Fail.  2 

Fail.  3 

Fail.  4 Fail. 

IB 

50 

45 

4 

1 

1A 

28 

1 

23 

2 

2 

2B 

19 

4 

5 

8 

1 

1 

2A 

11 

3 

3 

3 

1 

1 

3B 

13 

5 

4 

3 

1 

3A 

8 

3 

3 

1 

1 

4B 

10 

3 

2 

2 

1 

1 1 

4A 

7 

5 

1 

1 

5B 

3 

- 

2 

- 

- 

1 

5A 

10 

5 

3 

1 

1 

6B 

2 

- 

- 

2 

- 

6A 

16 

4 

1 

6 

3 

1 1 

7B 

10 

4 

2 

3 

1 

7A 

7 

5 

1 

- 

1 

- 

8B 

3 

1 

2 

— 

197 

42 

96 

34 

15 

8 2 

151 


1 


The  above  distribution  indicates  that  50  of  the  197 
pupils  not  recommended  in  June  were  in  the  IB  grade.  Forty-five 
of  this  nuraoer  have  insufficient  record  to  study,  that  is,  this 
is  their  first  semester  in  school,  while  five  of  this  grade  had 
failed  two  or  three  times  before.  In  the  1A  grade,  28  pupils 
failed  in  June,  One  of  these  had  incomplete  office  records  and 
23  had  never  failed  before.  In  4B,  there  was  a pupil  that  had 
failed  four  times  before.  In  all,  42  of  the  197  had  insufficient 
office  records  for  our  use  and  96  had  no  previous  failures. 

There  were  34  pupils  who  had  failed  once  before,  15,  twice,  8 had 
failed  three  times  and  2 had  failed  four  times  before,  thus  mak- 
ing a total  of  96  failures  made  by  59  different  pupils. 

The  complete  records  of  these  pupils  as  far  as  they 
were  available,  were  obtained  from  the  school  files  and  from 
these  data  the  pupils  were  studied  in  a way  quite  similar  to  that 
followed  by  Keyes  and  later  by  Smith  in  studies  on  the  effects  of 
repetition.  This  plan  consists  essentially  in  classifying  the 
pupils  according  to  the  grade  in  which  the  failure  occurred, 
which  resulted  in  a repetition,  and  then  studying  the  previous 
and  subsequent  average  scholarship  to  ascertain  whether  the  pupil 
did  better  work,  same  graae  of  work,  or  poorer  work  after  the  re- 
petition. 


i 


- 


~ - 


. 


152 

TABLE  XLIV  THE  REPETITIONS,  BY  GRADE,  THAT  RESULTED  ACCORDING 
TO  THE  GENERAL  AVERAGES,  IN  THE  PUPILS  SUBSEQUENTLY 
DOING  BETTER,  THE  SAME,  OR  POORER  WORK 


Better  Work 

Same  Quality 
of  Work 

Poorer  Work 

Grade 

No. 

Per  Cent 

No. 

Per  Cent 

No. 

Per  Cent 

Total 

I 

17 

33.3 

30 

f 

58.8 

4 

7.9 

51 

II 

5 

35.7 

8 

57.1 

1 

7.2 

14 

III 

7 

63.6 

3 

27.3 

1 

9.1 

11 

IV 

5 

55.6 

2 

23.2 

2 

23.2 

9 

V 

2 

28.5 

4 

57.2 

1 

14.3 

7 

VI 

1 

33.3 

1 

33.3 

1 

33.4 

3 

VII 

0 

--  - 

1 

100.0 

0 

— - 

1 

Total 

37 

38.6 

49 

51.0 

10 

10.4 

96 

According  to  Table  XLIV,  51  of  the  failures  listed 
were  made  in  the  first  grade  and  of  these,  only  about  one-third 
of  the  cases  resulted  in  some  gain  by  repetition.  Also  58.8  per 
cent  of  these  cases  showed  no  change  as  a result  of  repetition, 
and  7.9  per  cent  repeated  with  a loss  in  quality  of  work  done  the 
second  time  over.  At  the  rate  indicated  in  Table  XLIV,  of  100 
fifth-grade  pupils  required  to  repeat,  29  would  be  improved,  57 
would  make  about  the  same  grades,  and  14  would  make  one  or  more 
units  lower  in  general  average,  as  shown  in  the  steps  of  the 
scale  E,  G,  F,  P.  The  averages  for  all  grades  show  that  58.6 
per  cent  of  the  pupils  gained  in  scholarship,  that  51  per  cent 


153 


~~ 

remained  the  same,  and  that  10,4  per  cent  did  poorer  work  after 
repetition  than  before.  This  computation  covers  the  average 
scholarship  for  all  the  semesters  since  repetition. 

These  meager  results  taken  alone  mean  nothing  convinc- 
ing, but  when  taken  in  the  light  of  other  similar  investigations 
which  were  m~.de  at  different  times  and  in  different  parts  of  the 

country,  their  significance  is  not  to  be  overlooked.  For  ex- 

69 

ample,  Table  XLV  taken  from  the  study  made  by  Keyes  ‘ presents 

TABLE  XLV.  REPEATERS  OF  ALL  C-RADES  WHO,  AFTER  REPEATING, 

DID  BETTER,  THE  SAME , OR  POORER  WORK 


Grade 

Be  tt  er  Work 

Same  Quality 
of  Work 

Poorer  Work 

Per  cent 

Per  Cent 

Per  Cent 

I 

46 

27 

27 

II 

15 

30 

54 

III 

19 

31 

51 

IV 

18.8 

31.7 

49.5 

V 

31 

39 

40 

VI 

33 

43 

35 

VII 

38 

53 

20 

VIII 

48 

48 

4 

IX 

70 

30 

Total 

28 

3S 

36 

69.  Keyes,  C.  H,  Progress  Through  the  Grades  of  City  Schools, 

(Teachers  College  Contri out  ions  to  Education 
No.  43,  Columbia  University,  New  York,  1911) 
Table  19,  p.  38. 


5 


154 


figures  which  agree  in  showing  that  repetition  is  a questionable 
procedure.  This  table  shows  that  only  28  per  cent  of  the  pupils 
did  better  work  while  72  per  cent  did  the  same  or  a poorer  quali- 
ty of  work.  Keyes'  study  shows  fewer  pupils  with,  improved  re- 
cords and  more  pupils  with  poorer  records.  From  an  extension  of 
his  study  by  taking  the  first  six  grades  through  a period  of  six 
years  after  repeating  to  see  what  happened  to  the  apparent  gain 
or  loss,  he  concluded  that,  "the  tendency  is  (1)  to  do  better 
work  the  year  after  repeating,  (2)  to  lose  half  this  superiority 
the  second  year  and  (3)  to  fall  after  two  years  to  the  level  of 
his  performance  prior  to  repetition."  We  quote  also  from  his  in- 
terpretation of  Table  LV.  He  said,  "For  example,  it  was  found 
that  out  of  every  hundred  pupils  required  to  repeat  grade  five, 

21  did  better  work  afterwards;  that  is,  in  grades  S,  7,  8 and  9 

than  they  had  done  in  grades  1,  2,  3 and  4.  " 

70 

Smith  in  1917,  made  a similar  study  based  on  the 
schools  of  Bloomington  (Ind. ).  We  quote  from  his  conclusions: 
"Considering  average  scholarship  in  all  subjects,  the  average 
gain  per  cent  due  to  repeating  a term's  work  over  the  average 
scholarship  made  the  first  term  is  7.6.  During  the  succeeding 
term  not  all  of  the  gain  is  held  but  the  grade  is  still  6.3^ 
higher.  When  just  failing  grades  are  considered,  the  difference 
is  still  greater.  The  per  cent  gained  the  second  term  over  the 
first,  is  16.6,  dropping  in  the  third  term  to  15.3,  Not  only  was 


70.  Smith,  H.  L.  A Survey  of  a Public  School  System,  (Teach 

exs  College  Contributions  to  Education 
No.  82,  Columbia  University,  New  York, 
1917) 


. • 

. 

' 

N 

- 


. 


. . 


. 


. 


155 


there  improvement  with  subjects  in  which  failures  were  made  but 
improvement  was  made  in  subjects  that  were  being  repeated  but  in 
which  passing  grades  were  made  the  first  time  the  work  was  taken. 
The  average  scholarship  gain,  all  subjects  considered,  due  to 
gain  in  subjects  that  pupils  had  taken  the  first  time  over  was 
3.3  per  cent.  The  average  gain  due  to  gain  in  all  subjects,  was 
7.6,  clearly  showing  that  the  subjects  in  which  the  pupils  passed 
the  first  time,  were  done  better  when  they  were  repeated." 

For  our  purposes,  it  is  not  enough  to  point  out  the 
fact  of  certain  gains  or  losses,  but  the  administrator  needs  to 
know  the  nature  of  as  well  as  the  amount  of  this  change.  For  ex- 
ample, it  is  not  enough  for  him  to  be  able  to  point  to  the  fact 
of  7,6  per  cent  gain  in  all  subjects,  but  he  must  decide  whether 
this  percentage  of  gain  is  commensurate  with  the  loss  of  time  to 
the  pupil  who  repeats  much  subject  matter  which  he  had  already 

mastered,  and  whether  it  is  a sufficient  return  to  the  parents 

71 

and  the  community  who  must  make  it  possible  for  the  pupil  to 
be  in  school  the  extra  time  required.  It  is  also  well  to  in- 
quire into  the  gain  or  loss  by  subject.  The  following  summaries 
taken  from  Smith's  tables  suffice  to  show  this  lust  point. 


Ayers,  L.  P.  "Money  Cost  of  the  Repeater. " Psychological 

Clinic,  April  15,  1909,  Vol.T^PP.  49-57*. 


71. 


- 

. 


- 

■ 

. 


156 


TABLE  XLVI.  SUMMARY  OF  TABLES  SHOWING  BY  SUBJECT,  THE 
AMOUNT  OF  IMPROVEMENT  REALIZED  BY  REPETITION 
IN  THE  BLOOMINGTON  (IND. ) SCHOOLS 


Subject 

: Grade 

:No.  of 
: Repeat- 
: ers 

• • 

• • 

: Better  Work: 

• • 

• • 

Same  Quality 
of  Work 

Poorer  Work 

All 

All 

783 

418 

(31.5$) 

246  (31.4$) 

55 

( ^ 1o) 

Spelling 

All 

145 

93 

(63.4 

) 

47 

(32.4  ) 

6 

( 4.1  ) 

History 

All 

85 

53 

(62.4 

) 

38 

(30.6  ) 

6 

( 7.1  ) 

Arithmetic 

All 

93 

S9 

(74.3 

) 

17 

(18.3  ) 

7 

( 7-5  ) 

Geography 

All 

49 

49 

(83,1 

) 

8 

(13.5  ) 

2 

( 5.4  ) 

Language 

All 

108 

58 

(54.7 

) 

42 

(39.6  ) 

6 

( 5.7  ) 

Writing 

All 

139 

58 

(41.7 

) 

71 

(51.X  ) 

10 

( 7.1  ) 

Reading 

All 

155 

103 

(65.8 

) 

35 

(33.6  ) 

18 

(11.6  ) 

IB 

39 

33 

6 

1 

1A 

7 

6 

1 

0 

3B 

9 

8 

0 

1 

2A 

4 

3 

1 

0 

3B 

13 

4 

5 

3 

3A 

8 

7 

1 

0 

4B 

18 

8 

5 

5' 

4A 

13 

7 

3 

3 

5B 

6 

2 

3 

1 

5A 

7 

4 

2 

1 

6B 

6 

1 

4 

1 

6A 

2 

0 

1 

1 

7B 

6 

6 

0 

0 

7A 

8 

6 

1 

1 

8B 

6 

5 

1 

0 

8A 

4 

3 

1 

0 

The  foregoing  summaries  indicate  that  there  was  a larg- 
er per  cent  of  gain  in  all  the  grades  than  found  in  our  study  or 
in  that  reported  by  Keyes,  When  all  grades  were  considered,  in 


157 


61.5  per  cent  of  the  cases  there  was  some  improvement;  in  31.4 
per  cent  of  the  cases  there  was  no  change  noted;  and  in  7 per  cent 
of  the  cases  there  was  loss  in  scholastic  standing  after  repeti- 
tion. The  pupils  who  repeated  reading  are  here  distributed  by 
grade  because  reading  is  taught  in  all  the  grades  and  is  probably 
the  most  fundamental  subject.  In  13,  33  out  of  39  repeaters  were 
helped  by  repetition.  This,  of  course,  does  not  show  us  that  a 
similar  improvement  would  not  have  been  realized  if  the  pupils 
had  been  allowed  to  take  the  1A  grade  which  is  very  much  the  same 
type  of  work.  In  other  words,  the  administrative  problem  might 
be  better  solved  by  a slight  change  in  method  and  subject-matter, 
in  the  case  of  these  39  repeaters,  than  by  having  the  pupils  stay 
another  semester  in  IB. 

Until  we  know  the  probabilities  as  well  as  the  possi- 
bilities of  some  other  procedure  than  having  pupils  repeat,  we 
cannot  dogmatically  say  that  we  should  continue  the  practice  be- 
cause, as  in  the  above  instance,  the  pupils  improved.  Smith's 
conclusions  support  us  in  questioning  the  practice  of  repeating 
identical  work  to  improve  the  general  average.  He  says  that 
"38.4  per  cent  of  the  grades  given  repeaters  during  the  second 
semester  of  the  year  1913-14,  (his  study)  were  either  no  better 
or  poorer  than  the  grades  made  by  these  same  pupils  the  first 
time  they  took  the  work.  If  the  grades  given  by  the  teachers  are 
reliable  measures  of  what  pupils  are  doing,  the  conclusion  is 
self-evident  that  as  far  as  efficiency  in  subject-matter  is  con- 
cerned, there  was  a great  waste  of  time  in  a large  part  of  the 
repetition.  Especially  is  this  waste  noticeable  in  the  subjects 


‘ . 

. 


• 

• 

, 


- 


158 


of  writing,  with  58.2  per  cant  of  the  grades  no  better  than  the 
grades  of  the  first  term,  language  and  grammar  with  45.5  per  cent, 
history  with  37.8  per  cent,  spelling  with  38.5  per  cent,  reading 
with  34.2  per  cent.  In  geography  and  in  arithmetic  doing  the 
work  over  seems  to  be  of  more  benefit  to  the  child  than  in  other 
subjects.  These  conditions  should  be  remedied  either  through  the 
exercise  of  greater  Care  in  sentencing  pupils  to  a repetition  of 
the  work  or  to  such  an  organization  that  repeaters  can  get  more 
individual  attention  than  they  now  receive. " (page  97) 

The  School  Records  of  1QQ  Pupils 

Further  to  assure  ourselves  as  to  the  probable  benefits 
that  come  from  repeating  grades  in  the  ordinary  way,  a random  se- 
lection of  100  pupils  was  made  from  one  of  the  schools  of  our 
study.  These  pupils  are  "The  first  100  pupils  of  6th  or  7th 
grades,  who  have  complete  scholastic  records  in  the  Decatur 
schools."  These  records  were  copied  under  the  direction  of  Miss 
Sarah  Mark  Imboden,  Supervisor  of  Grades,  in  that  city  and  the 
pupils  were  selected  without  any  reference  to  whether  they  had 
repeated  a grade.  The  school  progress  of  this  random  selection 
is  shown  by  the  following  distribution  of  26  out  of  100.  These 
are  the  pupils  whose  records  showed  one  or  more  repetition. 


. 

. 

• . 


. 

. 


159 


TABLE  XLVII.  PRESENT  GRADE  AND  GRADE  REPEATED  BY  26  OUT 
OF  100  SIXTH-  AND  SEVENTH-GRADE  PUPILS  SELECTED 
AT  RANDOM  IN  DECATUR 


Pre  sent 
Grade 

Grade  Repeated 

Total 

Failures 

Individual 

Pupils 

IB 

1A 

2B:2A 

3B: 

3A: 

4B:4A 

5B 

5A 

SB 

SA 

6B 

1 

2:  1 

3: 

4: 

2: 

1 

14 

13 

6A 

1: 

1: 

2: 

1 

1 

1 

7 

4 

7B 

1 

: 1 

2: 

1 

1 

1 

7 

6 

7A 

1: 

: 2 

3 

3 

Total 

2 

2:  2 

4: 

8: 

4:  2 

1 

3 

1 

2 

31 

26 

TABLE  XLVII I.  DISTRIBUTION  OF  FAILURES  OF  26  REPEATERS  ACCORDING 
AS  THEY  DID  BETTER,  THE  SAME,  OR  POORER  WORK 


Grade  Repeated  : Better  Work;S dime  Quality  of  Work: Poorer  Work 


: 1A 

1 

0 

1 : 

:2B 

2 

0 

0 : 

:2A 

0 

1 

1 : 

:3B 

2 

2 

0 : 

:3A 

2 

6 

0 : 

:4B 

1 

3 

0 : 

:4A 

1 

1 

0 : 

:5B 

0 

0 

1 : 

:5A 

0 

3 

0 : 

:6B 

0 

1 

0 : 

:6A 

0 

1 

1 : 

: All 

Grades 

9~l29 

_ 41 

18  (58.1 4) 

4 112.2VT : 

In 

this  group 

of  repeaters,  fewer 

than  one-third  were 

benefited  by 

repetition. 

The 

nature  of  the 

change  realized  in 

their  standing  can  be  seen  by  contrasting  their  standings  within 
each  of  the  above  groups.  This  is  shown  in  Table  XLIX. 


V 


160 


TABLE  XLIX.  THE  CHANGE  IN  STANDING  OF  26  PUPILS 
AFTER  ONE  OR  MORE  REPETITIONS 


Grade 

Gained 

Same  Standing 

Lost 

Total 

Repeated 

F-G  F-E  G-E  P-F 

P-P  F-F  G-G-  E-E 

E-G  G-F  F-P 

Repetition 

1A 

1 

1 

2 

2B 

2 

2 

2A 

1 

1 

2 

3B 

1 1 

3 

4 

3A 

1 1 

5 1 

8 

4B 

1 

3 

4 

4A 

1 

1 

3 

5B 

1 

1 

5A 

2 1 

3 

6B 

1 

1 

6A 

1 

1 

3 

Total 

5 112 

1 15  3 0 

13  1 

31 

The  pupils  of  fair  ability  as  shown  in  the  average  of 

the  semester  whose  work  was  repeated,  were  as  a rule  the  average- 

fair  pupils  of  the  next  semester.  Out  of  31  repetitions  ma.de  by 
26  pupils,  only  3 changed  from  P to  F or  to  any  grade  higher  than 
F and  IS  averaged  the  same  before  as  after  repetition,  thus  indi- 
cating that  repetition  has  limited  influence  on  the  first  stand- 
ing. The  most  striking  data  in  these  tables  are  the  few  repeti- 
tions made  as  a result  of  grades  as  low  as  P.  There  has  been  a 

tendency  in  this  system,  to  require  pupils  to  repeat  grades  even 
when  final  marks  of  ?5  or  more  were  obtained.  The  majority  of 
repetitions  were  made  by  pupils  who  were  barely  above  the  passing 
mark  or  who  had  fallen  below  in  one  or  two  subjects.  Table  XLIX 
shows  that  only  3 of  the  31  failures  were  based  on  a general 
average  below  F.  The  same  tendency  is  shown,  also,  by  the  number 
of  repetitions  that  were  made  by  pupils  who  had  failed  in  no  sub- 


- • 

* 

161 


ject  the  semester  before  the  repetition. 

TABLE  L.  SHOWING  THE  SUBJECTS  IN  WHICH  FAILING  MARKS  WERE 
OBTAINED,  THE  SEMESTER  NEXT  PRECEDING  REPETITION 


Grade  : Subject  Failed 

Repeated: Reading: Arith, :Lang. ;Geog. :Hiat. : Spell. : None 


* — : — _ 

IB 

32 

8 

1A 

6 

5 

3B 

4 

3 

0 

2A 

3 

1 2 

6 

3B 

3 

4 2 

1 

1 

2 

3A 

2 

1 1 

0 

1 

1 

4B 

0 

2 1 

1 

0 

2 

1 

4A 

1 

2 0 

2 

2 

2 

3 

5B 

0 

2 3 

2 

2 

1 

1 

5A 

1 

3 1 

1 

0 

3 

1 

6B 

0 

1 0 

1 

0 

0 

1 

6A 

1 

1 0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

7B 

0 

0 0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

7A 

0 

1 0 

1 

1 

0 

0 

Total 

53 

18  13 

8 

6 

10 

29 

Table  L is  based  on  the  96  repetitions  which  are  shown 
in  Table  XLIV  on  page  It  shows  that  33  of  the  IB  failures 

were  caused  by  inability  to  read  well,  and  that  reading  appeared 
as  one  of  the  hard  subjects  that  either  alone  or  in  combination 
with  some  other  subject  was  the  cause  of  failure  in  other  grades. 
Twenty-nine  of  these  failures,  evidently,  were  not  the  result  of 
failing  any  one  subject,  but  were  made  because  the  pupil's  work, 
in  general,  was  not  up  to  grade.  Poor  attendance,  the  teachers' 
feeling  that  the  pupils  had  not  had  a chance  to  know  part  of  the 
subject-matter  and  the  common  impression  that  taking  the  work 
over  will  cause  pupils  to  get  it  better,  are  evidently  common 
reasons  for  repetition.  Such  remarks  on  the  Cards,  as  "poor 


. 

. 


: 


• 

• 

* 

* 

! 

. 'Mi 

* 


162 


foundation”,  "generally  weak"  and  "not  able  to  do  higher  work" 
ar3  indicative  that  the  teachers  either  think  repetition  aids 
the  pupil  in  getting  the  work  better  or  else  they  think  there  is 
no  alternative  in  the  matter. 

Conclusions 

In  discussing  repetition  here,  we  cannot  dogmatize 
with  much  freedom  because  the  data  are  limited  in  the  number  of 
cases  and  the  failures  are  so  unevenly  distributed  through  the 
grades.  These  data  are  sufficient,  however,  to  show  a tendency 
among  the  teachers  in  one  of  the  school  systems  of  our  study, 
to  be  guided  in  the  promotion  of  pupils  by  a general  impression 
of  their  ability  to  do  all  the  work  of  the  past  term.  This  im- 
pression is  influenced  by  the  pupil’s  work  in  the  last  days  or 
months  preceding  the  time  for  making  reclassification.  As  a con- 
sequence, pupils  with  a general  average  of  F are  often  caused  to 
repeat  a grade  and  sometimes  the  general  average  of  a repeater 
for  the  semester  before  repetition  is  G or  in  rare  instances  as 
high  as  E.  This  situation  may  be  expected  to  occur  more  fre- 
quently among  pupils  who  attend  irregularly  (especially  if  they 
are  out  of  school  for  as  much  as  half  the  time)  regardless  of 
their  ability  to  do  the  next  year's  v/ork.  Some  pupils  with  an 
average  of  E in  all  subjects,  for  example,  have  been  required  to 
repeat  because  the  total  attendance  was  approximately  40-50  days 
for  the  semester.  This  is  probably  due  to  a belief  that  all  the 
work  should  be  done  by  every  pupil  before  promotion  has  been 


earned.  It  may  be  due  in  part,  also,  to  a somewhat  general  be- 


. 

, ' 

’ 

I 

■ 

, U / l 


: 

. 

. . 

163 


lief  that  all  the  work  of  the  course  of  study  has  something  of 
value  for  all  pupils  and  is  in  a way,  prerequisite  to  work  that 
is  to  follow.  Pupil  No.  20,  is  a case  in  point.  He  averaged  F 
but  attended  only  43  days.  He  repeated  in  3A  after  no  failure 
in  this  grade;  and  in  4B,  which  was  not  repeated,  he  made  the 
same  grade  with  50  days  attendance. 

There  are  so  many  factors  entering  into  the  question  of 
determining  the  value  of  repetition,  one  cannot  say  that  pupils 
who  do  not  improve  their  scholastic  standing  by  repetition,  are 
not  benefited.  It  is  a questionable  procedure,  however,  if  there 
is  no  improvement  in  the  marks  as  a result  of  spending  an  extra 
semester  on  the  identical  material  and  the  burden  of  proof  is  on 
the  advocate  of  such  repetitions  to  show  their  value.  In  general, 
the  results  of  our  study  of  the  gains  due  to  repeating  a grade, 
agree  with  those  of  other  similar  studies  in  falling  to  find  value 
in  more  than  half  of  the  repetitions  that  were  made. 

The  grestest  number  of  failures  were  made  in  the  IB 
grade  where  the  only  subject  that  receives  much  attention  is  read- 
ing. Many  of  these  failures  were  evidently  due  to  poor  attend- 
ance, Many  of  them  were  made  by  pupils  who  secured  no  better 
grades  the  second  time  than  they  made  the  first  time  over  the 
work. 

I 

There  is  little  or  no  evidence  in  the  facts  of  our  study 
to  show  that  repetition  for  the  purpose  of  causing  the  pupil  to 
get  the  work  "better"  7/hen  the  pupil  has  not  failed  in  his  work, 
is  worth  anything  to  the  pupil.  There  is  much  time  wasted  in  try- 
ing to  get  pupils  who  are  accustomed  to  making  a certain  average 


, 


; . •.  . . 

. 

- 

i 

■ 


. 


. 


^ " " i-  . 


164 


mark,  say  F,  to  raise  this  mark  to  G or  something  higher  by  re- 
peating the  work  a second  term.  Such  repetition  is  often  ac- 
companied by  a drop  in  the  general  average. 

On  the  whole,  repetition  of  identical  work  by  a pupil 
who  has  had  ample  opportunity  to  get  the  work  the  first,  time, 
usually  does  not  result  in  improvement  of  mark.  The  per  cent  of 
gain  due  to  repetition  is  due  almost  entirely  to  the  pupils  who 
change  from  a mark  of  F to  a mark  of  G.  In  practically  no  case, 
is  the  gain  more  than  that  represented  by  an  advance  of  one  step 
in  the  grading  scale. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  old  custom  of  causing  pu- 
pils who  fall  slightly  below  passing,  to  repeat  a grade,  is  con- 
ducive of  retardation  without  sufficient  assurance  that  such  re- 
petition will  result  in  good  to  the  pupil,  greater  care  should  be 
taken  to  prevent  pupils  from  "taking  over"  the  work  of  a grade. 


1 


■ 


f* 

. 


• - 


165 


CHAPTER  IX 

GENERAL  SUMMARY  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

This  study  supports  the  belief  that  much  ox  the  retard- 
ation of  pupils  in  the  public  schools,  results  from  the  customary 
plan  of  advancing  pupils  at  the  end  of  a term,  on  the  work  of  the 
grade  just  gone  over.  Many  pupils  are  caused  to  repeat  grades 
when  they  are  able  to  do  the  work  of  the  next  higher  grade  satis- 
factory to  the  teachers  concerned  and  with  profit  to  themselves. 

The  plan  of  requiring  pupils  to  make  passing  marks  in 
practically  all  the  subjects  of  a given  grade,  as  a condition 
precedent  to  being  promoted  xo  the  next  higher  grade  in  any  sub- 
ject, works  a hardship  on  marginal  pupils  and  on  those  who  are 
low  in  only  part  of  the  subjects.  The  disadvantage  of  repeating 
by  such  pupils  is  not  sufficiently  compensated,  it  seems,  by  gain 
in  scholarship  standing,  to  warrant  the  use  of  such  an  inflexible 
standard. 

There  are  many  pupils  in  our  public  schools,  who  are 
capable  of  doing  work  of  as  good  quality  as  that  done  by  the  best 
one  fourth  of  the  class,  one  or  more  steps  higher  in  the  scheme 
of  promotion. 

Sometimes  pupils  profit  by  giving  them  double  promo- 
tions. When  the  pupils  for  such  advancement  are  selected  with 
due  regard  for  health,  on  the  three-fold  basis  of  mental  tests, 
standardized  tests  and  sub ject-»matter  examinations,  there  are  no 


166 


apparently  bad  results.  Three  pupils  out  of  every  four  in  the 
group  thus  promoted  in  the  panville  experiment  maintained  them- 
selves for  three  semesters  in  the  upper  twenty-five  percentile  of 
the  class  to  which  they. were  advanced. 

The  plan  of  giving  all  doubtful  pupils  a probationary 
period  as  Was  done  in  the  Deoatur-Springfield  experiment,  is  a 
profitable  administrative  procedure.  By  such  a scheme,  in  three 
semesters,  3240  pupils  or  about  71.3  per  cent  of  a total  of  3141 
probationers  were  saved  from  repetition  of  a gr ~de. 

The  names  of  pupils  promoted  as  a result  of  the  pro- 
longed testing  period  (Probation)  in  a given  semester,  do  not  as 
- rule,  appear  among  the  names  of  the  non-recommend  pupils  in 
succeeding  semesters.  Out  of  2864  different  pupils  on  probation 
in  one  or  more  semesters,  1087  were  in  the  first  probation  only; 
680  were  in  the  second  only;  S78  in  the  third  only;  113  appeared 
in  the  first  and  second;  29  in  second  and  third;  17  in  the  first 
and  third;  and  59  were  in  all  three,  (Table  XXVI) 

Th3  advantages  of  this  plan  of  promotion,  it  seams, 
are  not  dependent  upon  any  special  devices.  Its  chief  merit  lies 
in  giving  pupils  a testing  period  during  which  time  the  emphasis 
is  on  the  doing  of  the  work  of  the  grade  to  which  promotion  is 
to  take  place  instead  of  working  for  a mark  in  work  that  has  been 
gone  over. 

There  are  no  apparent  disadvantages  to  the  school  from 
this  plan.  The  general  level  of  scholarship  was  raised  each 


167 


succeeding  semester.  No  radical  changes  in  organization  or  ad- 
administration  were  required. 

Such  a plan  is  not  only  feasible  but  is  warranted  by 
positive  gain  the  promotion  rate.  Pupils  aided  most  by  this  ad- 
ministrative  procedure  seem  to  be  those  who,  because  of  changing 
schools  or  poor  attendance,  have  not  been  with  the  teacher  long 
enough  to  prove  their  right  to  advance.  Likewise,  pupils  who 
are  barely  able  to  make  passing  marks  in  one  or  more  subjects  are 
sometimes  able  to  obtain  advancement  in  this  way. 

Our  findings  from  a study  of  repetitions  in  connection 
with  this  experiment,  (Chapter  VIII)  support  the  conclusions  ar- 
rived at  by  other  investigators  that  requiring  pupils  to  repeat 
the  identical  work  of  a whole  grade  when  a pupil  falls  below 
passing  in  one  or  mere  subjects,  is  at  best,  a wasteful  practice. 
Comparatively  few  pupils  improve  scholarship  by  repetition  of 
grades . 

The  plan  of  giving  doubtful  pupils  a chance  to  sho?;  if 
they  are  able  to  do  work  of  a higher  grade,  removes  the  necessity 
of  measuring  them  by  a common  mathematical  standard  and  reduces 
the  number  of  repeaters. 

Reoommendat ions 

The  experimental  part  of  our  invest igat ion  has  demon- 
strated the  possibility  of  improving  over-age  conditions  in  the 
public  schools  by  a slight  change  of  emphasis  in  the  determina- 
tion of  a proper  criterion  for  judging  a pupil's  fitness  for 


• 

• ' 

• 

. 

* 

. 

: 


168 


promotion.  It  is  desirable,  in  this  connection,  to  offer  certain 
definite  suggestions  as  to  needed  improvements  in  the  line  of  our 
conclusions  based  on  the  foregoing  study. 

1.  Every  case  of  promotion  should  be  considered 

primarily  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  individ- 
ual pupil's  best  interest.  The  pupil  should  be 
placed  in  that  grade  where  the  school  can  do  the 
most  for  him  regardless  of  anything  el3e  as  a 
criterion  for  promotion.  This  may  mean  double 
promotion  or  no  promotion  (Change  of  Grade)  for 
certain  pupils  and  an  unearned  placement  for 
others . 

3.  Promotion  should  no  longer  be  looked  upon  as  an 
act  of  reward  or  punishment  for  a certain  record, 
such  as  scholastic  average  in  a given  grade,  at- 
tendance, deportment  and  the  like.  The  school, 
on  the  other  hand,  should  take  from  time  to  time, 
the  initiative  in  placing  the  pupil  in  the  grade 
or  grades  which  may  offer  a maximum  opportunity 
to  call  out  the  pupil's  best  efforts. 

3.  The  teacher  is  justified  in  modifying  the  course 
of  study,  the  teaching  method  or  any  other  formal 
procedure  of  the  traditional  school,  if  by  so  do- 
ing there  is  greater  probability  that  she  will  aid 
the  pupil  more  than  she  will  inconvenience  the 
school . 

4.  The  administrator  should  consider  it  a part  of  his 


. 


. 


169 


official  duty  to  see  that  pupils  are  properly 
classified.  This  may  entail  such  provisions  as 
the  formation  of  new  classes,  special  classes, 
individual  instruction  in  certain  subjects  with 
some  pupils,  placing  pupils  in  other  classes  or 
rooms  at  any  time  of  the  term,  or  giving  pupils 
a chance  to  show  the  teachers  concerned,  whether 
the  work  of  a more  advanced  grade  is  within  the 
comprehension  of  such  pupils.  (Trial  Promotions) 

5.  Grade  distinctions  should  be  regarded  as  mere  ad- 
ministrative devices.  Teachers  should  be  en- 
couraged to  teach  appropriate  subject-matter  for 
given  grades  but  pupils  should  not  be  thought  of 

as  fitting  perfectly  into  these  artificial  compart- 
ments. For  this  reason,  a pupil  weak  in  one  or 
two  subjects,  should  be  given  extra  attention  in 
these  subjects  after  promotion  but  should  not  be 
required  to  repeat  a grade  until  all  the  work  has 
been  supposedly  made  up.  (Many  pupils  with  such 
standing,  in  the  schools  of  this  study,  did  better 
work  in  all  subjects  in  the  advanced  grade  than 
they  did  in  the  previous  grade.) 

6.  Promotion  should  be  based  on  the  teacher's  best 
estimate  and  such  matters  as  class  grades,  ex- 
aminations and  the  like  have  their  place  in  help- 
ing the  teacher  to  get  a line  on  what  has  been 
taught  from  time  to  time.  Examinations  should  not, 


. 


. 

I 

. 


170 


on  the  other  hand,  he  taken  as  the  sole  basis  for 
promotion.  The  examination  should  be  regarded 
merely  as  a device  which  is  effective  with  some 
pupils  and  in  the  hands  of  some  teachers,  but  it 
is  not  an  unerring  guide  either  to  what  a pupil 
has  done  or  can  do.  The  chief  use  of  tests  on 
subject-matter,  should  be  as  a teaching  device  and 
not  as  a promotional  device. 

7,  Less  emphasis  should  be  put  on  final  marks,  passing 
grades  and  the  like.  The  important  question  is 
whether  the  pupil  is  getting  the  present  work  or 
whether  he  can  comprehend  and  properly  make  use  of 
the  subject-matter  that  is  ahead.  If  not,  why  not? 
The  teacher  must  know  whether  the  pupil  is  being 
promoted  every  day  and  not  wait  for  the  final  ex- 
amination or  any  other  end- term  experience. 

8.  It  is  a good  plan  to  make  up  two  lists  of  pupils 
just  prior  to  the  regular  time  for  reclassification. 

A.  Pupils  whose  ability  to  do  the  work  of 
the  next  higher  class  or  grade,  is  un- 
questioned by  the  teachers. 

B.  Pupils  of  quest ionalbe  ability. 

All  of  division  A should  be  advanced  on  the  pre- 
sumptive evidence  that  their  proven  ability  in  the 
previous  grade  shows  that  they  can  do  the  work  of 
a higher  grade.  All  of  list  B should  be  given  a 
probationary  period  of  say  6 weeks,  during  which 


- .. 


) 


171 


time  the  receiving  teacher  should  do  all  in  her 
power  to  cause  them  to  maintain  themselves  in  the 
new  grade  and  at  the  end  of  this  probation,  they 
should  be  judged  in  terms  of  their  respective  re- 
cord. 


Ba3 is  of  Prompt  ion 

Instead  of  making  promotions  on  the  amount  or  quality 
of  work  done  and  on  this  alone,  all  promotions  should  be  made 
after  taking  into  account  the  one  important  question,  where 
should  the  pupil  be  placed  in  order  that  the  school  can  do  the 
most  for  him.  This  should  usually  take  into  consideration  four 
points,  - health  and  age  of  the  child,  heredity  and  environment, 
ability  to  do  more  advanced  work  and  lastly  the  amount  and  quali 
ty  of  work  done  in  the  previous  grads. 


F 


172 


Ayres,  Leonard  P. 


Bachman,  Frank  P. 

Bagley,  W.  C. 
Barnard,  Frank  J . 

Bennett,  H.  E. 
Babbitt,  J.  F. 

Boone,  R.  G. 

Bonser,  F.  G. 

Bright,  Orville  T. 


CHAPTER  X 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 


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Grading  of  Schools.  Including  a Full 
Explanation  of  a Practical  Plan  of 
Grading.  New  York,  1899.  220  pp . 

Survey  of  a Public  School  System. 
Bloomington,  Indiana. 

Reliability  of  Grading  Work  in  Mathe- 
matics. School  Review,  April,  1913. 
Vol.  21,  pp.  354-259. 


r 


177 


St.  Louis,  Missouri 
Terman,  Lewis  M. 
Thorndike,  E.  L. 


Thorndike,  E.  L. 

Van  Sickle,  J.  H. 

Wall in,  J.  E.  W. 
Washburne,  C.  W. 
Whipple,  Guy  M. 
Young,  Ella  Flagg 
Yule,  Udny 


School  Report  of,  pp.  1868-74.  (For 
further  discussion  of  the  St.  Louis 
Plan,  see  Education  Review,  November, 
1894 . Vol.  8,  pp.  387-389. 

The  Use  of  Intelligence  Tests  in  the 
Grading  of  School  Children.  Journal 
Education  Research,  January,  1920. 

Vol.  I.,  p.  20. 

The  Elimination  of  Pupils  from  School. 
United  States  Bureau  of  Education 
Bulletin  ho.  4,  1907. 

Educational  Psychology.  Briefer 
Course.  Part  III,  p.  331.  Teachers 
College,  Columbia  University,  New 
York  .1914. 

Tests  of  Intelligence,  Reliability, 
etc.  School  and  Society,  February  15, 
1919,  pp.  189-194. 

Handwriting.  Teachers  College  Record, 
March,  1910.  Vol.  11,  pp.  82-175. 

Grading  and  Promotion  With  Reference 
to  the  Individual  Needs  of  Pupils. 
Proceedings  National  Education  As- 
sociation, 1898.  (The  Denver  Plan) 

The  Mental  Health  of  the  School  Child. 
New  Haven:  Yale  University  Press, 

1914. 

Breaking  the  Lockstep  in  Our  Schools. 
School  and  Society,  October  5,  1918. 
Vol.  8,  pp.  391-402. 

Classes  for  Gifted  Children.  Public 
School  Publishing  Company,  Blooming- 
ton, Illinois,  1919. 

Grading  and  Reclassification  of 
Pupils.  Proceedings  National  Educa- 
te ion  Association,  1903,  p.  83. 

Introduction  to  the  Theory  of  Statis- 
tics. London.  C.  Griffin  &.  Company, 

1919. 


- 


178 


CHAPTER  XI 
Appendix  A - Mental  Tests  Used 

Directions  for  Test  I 

Look  at  these  numbers: 

(a)  2-2- 

(b)  6-5 

(c)  17  - 17- 

(d)  31  - 31 

(e)  1769  - 1679 

Compare  the  numbers  opposite  each  other  in  the  two  columns.  Place 
a straight  mark  by  the  right-hand  figure  when  the  two  numbers  com- 
pared are  the  same.  Thus,  in  the  fore-exercise  a and  c should  have 
a dash  by  the  right-hand  2-  and  the  right-hand  17- . 

On  the  next  sheet  there  are  two  long  columns  of  numbers 
to  be  compared  like  the  ones  you  have  done.  If  the  two  numbers 
which  are  side  by  side  in  the  two  columns  are  the  same,  place  a 
straight  mark  by  them  just  as  you  have  done  here.  Do  not  mark  the 
other  numbers. 


. . ' 


179 


Test  I 

(For  Grades  I to  IV) 
Number  Checking  Test 


3 

— 

3 

89976432 

— 

8976432 

4 

— 

5 

92743678 

— 

93743658 

8 

~ 

6 

87439581 

— 

87439581 

33 

— 

32 

92764758 

— 

92764558 

49 

— 

49 

37645972 

_ 

47645972 

76 

_ 

76 

83834765 

— 

83834765 

474 

— 

744 

83974685 

_ 

83974684 

491 

— 

491 

S7465432 

— 

97465432 

369 

— 

369 

75554756 

— 

75544756 

8448 

— 

8447 

63394461 

_ 

63394461 

3789 

— 

3978 

11751127 

— 

11751127 

8996 

— 

8996 

39641171 

— 

396411711 

93276 

— 

93376 

597234166 

— 

597234168 

87644 

— 

876644 

366497786 

— 

366397786 

933764 

_ 

933764 

994757512 

- 

994757512 

843323 

— 

843223 

354311343 

— 

254311343 

8678946 

— 

868946 

376452793 

— 

376452973 

9727645 

_ 

9737645 

668442919 

- 

668442919 

Instructions  for  Test  II 

On  the  next  sheet  you  will  find  a number  of  arithmetic 
problems.  Get  the  answers  to  these  problems  as  quickly  as  you  can. 
Use  the  side  of  the  sheet  to  figure  on  if  you  need  to.  You  will 
have  exactly  7 minutes  for  this  page.  Do  as  many  as  you  can,  but 
be  careful  to  get  them  right.  Ready,  go. 


, • - 

" .... 


- * 


180 


Test  II 

(For  Grades  I to  IV) 


1.  7 boys  were  playing  ball  and  3 more  came  to  play  with 

them.  How  many  were  playing  then?  Answer  ( 

3.  There  are  7 seats  in  the  first  row  in  our  room,  but  2 
of  them  are  empty.  How  many  children  are  sitting  in 
the  row?  Answer  ( 

3.  26  sparrows  were  on  the  lawn.  7 flew  away.  How  many 

were  left?  Answer  ( 

4.  Mary  bought  a box  of  paints  for  7 cents,  and  gave  a 

25-cent  piece  in  payment.  How  many  cents  did  she  re- 
ceive in  change?  Answer  ( 

5.  In  our  class  we  learn  to  spell  2 words  a day.  How 
many  days  will  it  take  us  to  learn  23  words?  Answer  ( 

6.  How  much  did  it  cost  Sarah  to  go  to  the  picnic,  if 

she  spent  20  cents  for  car  fares,  6 cents  for  lemonade, 

13  cents  for  candy,  and  15  cents  on  the  merry-go-round? 

Answer  ( 

7.  The  water  in  the  pond  is  3 feet  deep.  The  top  of 
Harry's  head  is  1 foot  above  the  water  when  he  stands 
on  the  bottom  of  the  pond.  How  tall  is  Harry?  Answer  ( 

8.  There  were  4 sleds  on  Morton's  hill  last  Saturday.  If 

each  one  held  8 children,  how  many  children  could 
slide  down  hill  at  one  time?  Answer  ( 

9.  6 boys  rode  to  a baseball  game.  The  fare  to  the 
grounds  was  5 cents  each.  How  much  did  the  beys  pay? 

Answer  ( 

10.  Henry  counted  a company  of  soldiers  in  this  way:  He 

found  that  there  were  8 rows  of  S men  each  and  3 of- 
ficers. How  many  soldiers  were  there  all  together? 

Answer  ( 

11.  If  an  electric  car  runs  9 miles  an  hour,  how  many  hours 

will  it  take  to  travel  from  one  city  to  another,  117 
miles  away?  Answer  ( 

12.  Some  children  found  5 birds'  nests  containing  5 eggs 

each.  How  many  eggs  did  they  find?  Answer  ( 


181 


1 


Instructions  for  Test  III 


Look  at  these  exercises: 

(a)  good bad SAME OPPOSITE 

(b)  little  - small  SAME  - - OPPOSITE 

In  exercise  (a)  good  means  the  opposite  of  bad.  This  is  shown  by 
drawing  a line  under  the  word  OPPOSITE . In  exercise  (b)  little 
means  the  same  as  small.  Here  we  draw  a line  under  SAME . Mark 
the  sentences  on  the  next  page  this  way  to  show  whether  they  mean 
the  same  or  opposite. 

Test  III 

(For  Grades  III  to  VIII) 


1. 

Wet  - dry  -----  ------- 

- - SAME 

- 

OPPOSITE 

3. 

In  - out 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

3. 

Bare  - naked  ---------- 

- - SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

4. 

Expand  - contract  -------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

5. 

Allow  - permit  --------- 

SAME 

- 

OPPOSITE 

6. 

Class  - group  ---------- 

- - SAME 

OPPOSITE 

7. 

Confess  - admit  --------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

8. 

Minus  - plus  ---------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

Q 

V • 

Former  - latter  --------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

10. 

Delicate  - tender  -------- 

- - SAME 

- 

OPPOSITE 

11. 

Extinguish  - quench  ------- 

SAME 

OPPOSITE 

12. 

Commend  - approve  -------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

13. 

Linger  - loiter  --------- 

- - SAME 

_ 

OPPOSITE 

14. 

Concave  - convex  -------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

15. 

Lax  - strict  ---------- 

SAME 

- 

OPPOSITE 

16. 

Debase  - exalt  --------- 

- - SAME 

* 

OPPOSITE 

17. 

Dissension  - harmony  ------ 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

18. 

Adversary  - colleague  ------ 

- SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

19. 

Assert  - maintain  -------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

20. 

Champion  - advocate  ------- 

- SAME 

- 

OPPOSITE 

21. 

Repress  - restrain  ------- 

SAME 

OPPOSITE 

22. 

Any  - none  ----------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

23. 

Amenable  - tractable  ------ 

SAME 

_ 

OPPOSITE 

34. 

Superfluous  - essential  - - - - - 

SAME 

- 

OPPOSITE 

25. 

Reverence  - veneration  - - - - - 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

1S3 


36. 

Fallacy  - verity  - --  --  --  --  - 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

27. 

Recoup  - recover  ---------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

28. 

Celibate  - married  --------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

39. 

Specific  - general  --------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

30. 

Apathy  - indifference  ------- 

SAME 

- 

OPPOSITE 

31. 

Effeminate  - virile  -------- 

SAME 

OPPOSITE 

33. 

Agglomerate  - scatter  ------- 

SAME 

- 

OPPOSITE 

33. 

Benign  - genial  ---------- 

SAME 

- 

OPPOSITE 

34. 

Acme  - climax  ----------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

35. 

Suavity  - asperity  --------- 

SAME 

- 

OPPOSITE 

36. 

Innuendo  - insinuation  ------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

37. 

Aphorism  - maxim  ---------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

38. 

Vesper  - matin  ----------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

39. 

Lugubrious  - maudlin  -------- 

SAME 

— 

OPPOSITE 

40. 

Encomium  - eulogy  --------- 

SAME 

- 

OPPOSITE 

Test  IV  - Information  Test 
(For  Grades  III  to  VIII) 

Notice  the  sample  sentence:  Apples  grow  on  - vines  - 

roots  - grass  - trees ♦ The  word  "trees"  has  a line  under  it  be- 
cause it  is  the  word  which  makes  a true  sentence. 

Notice  another  sample  sentence:  People  can  see  through  - 

wood  - stone  - glass  - iron.  What  is  the  word  that  best  completes 
the  sentence?  Draw  a line  under  it.  In  the  sentences  below  draw 
a line  under  the  one  of  the  four  words  in  each  row  which  makes  a 
good  sentence.  Do  not  draw  a line  under  more  than  one  word  for 
only  one  word  in  each  set  is  right.  If  you  cannot  be  sure,  guess. 


-*• 


183 


1 . A Gown  is  a 


string 

. an imal 

2. 

To  Tap  is  to 

run 

• fall 

3. 

Scorch  means  to 

cut 

.bruise 

4. 

Some  Puddles  are  made  of 

sand 

. mud 

5. 

Envelopes  are  made  for 

letters 

. snakes 

. . . .apples 

6 . 

A good  Rule  should  be 

worn 

.burned 

7. 

A man  in  Health  is 

small 

.white 

8. 

Eye-lashes  are  made 

of 

skin 

.hair 

9. 

Copper  is  used  to  make 

pennies 

. shirts 

10. 

To  Curse  is  to 

buy 

.bless 

11. 

Pork  comes  from 

sheep 

. cows ....... 

pigs 

12. 

To  point  Outward  is 

to  point 

around 

• along 

13. 

The  Southern  part  of 

the  United 

States  is 

prairie 

.mountainous 

. . . .warm 

14. 

A Lecture  is  a 

concert 

.talk 

.... game ....... 

15. 

A Dungeon  is 

dark 

. ooen 

IS. 

Skill  is 

keenness 

. expertness . 

17. 

To  Ramble  is  to 

skat  e 

.swim 

18. 

A Civil  person  is 

rude 

.rough 

19. 

Anything  Insured  is 

protected 

.burned 

20. 

Nerves  are  found  in 

the 

hair 

. ground 

21. 

A Juggler  is  a 

magician 

.physician. . 

22. 

To  Regard  is  to 

magn if  y 

.consider . . . 

23. 

Staves  are  used  in 

scales 

.paint ing. . . 

24. 

Brunettes  are 

red 

• white 

25. 

Hysterics  are  shown 

in 

control 

• sleep 

26. 

Mars  is  a 

country 

.planet 

27. 

Mosaic  work  reveals 

patterns 

.homogeneity 

. . . . str ipes . . . . 

184 

28. 

To  Bewail  is  to 

applaud. ...... 

.beware ....... 

. lament 

29. 

A Priceless  book  is 

useless 

.pr incely 

. excellent 

30. 

Disproportionate  amounts  are 

rough 

.unequal 

. equal 

31. 

To  Tolerate  is  to 

permit 

.record 

32. 

An  Artless  person 

is 

craf  ty 

.artful 

.frank 

• 

CO 

CO 

A Depredation  is  a 

denravity . , . . . 

.deprecation. . 

. .robbery 

.gain 

34. 

The  Lotus  is  a 

lout 

.water-lily. . . 

.bird 

35. 

To  Frustrate  is  to 

balk 

. exc ite 

. ignore 

36. 

A Harpy  is  a 

hobby 

.litany 

.monster 

37. 

To  Flaunt  is  to 

flay 

. taunt 

.reprove 

38. 

Ochre  is  a 

nostrum 

.pigment ...... 

.feast 

39. 

A Milksop  is  a 

mollycoddle , . . 

.flirt . 

.prude 

40. 

An  Incrustation  is 

a 

coating 

.absorption. . . 

. indentat ion 

41, 

Retroactive  laws  affect  the 

f inane ial 

.past 

.future 

42. 

Ambergris  is  used 

in 

candles ....... 

.fishing 

.medicine 

43. 

Achromatic  glass  is 

tinted 

.frosted 

.uncolored 

44. 

Perfunctory  actions  are 

mechanical .... 

.habitual 

. chance 

45. 

The  term  Piscatorial  applies  to 

painting 

. sculpturing. . 

. .fishing 

.min ing 

46. 

Casuistry  is  a science  which  deals  with 

medicine 

.conscience . . . 

. stars 

47. 

Sudorific  substances  cause 

blindness 

. sweating 

. hunger 

48. 

Parterre  i3  a term 

applied  to 

flower-gardens 

.art illery . . . . 

.balconies 

49. 

Shagreen  is  a 

color 

.perfumery . . . . 

.leather 

50. 

A Complot  is  a 

compline 

.conspiracy. . . 

. garden 

On  the  next 

page  you  will 

find  another  she 

et  of  sen- 

tences  very  much  like 

the  ones  you  have  just  tried. 

When  you  are 

sure  you  have  done  all 

you  can  on  this  page  turn  over  the  page  and 

185 


go  to  work  on  Test  V. 


correct  incorrect omitted  Score 


Test  V 

(For  Grades  III  to  VIII) 


1. 


2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6 . 

7. 

8. 
9. 

10. 

11. 

12. 

13. 

14. 

15. 

16. 


17. 


18. 


19. 


20. 


An  Orange  is  a 

dress animal fruit ...  . 

A Bonfire  usually  burns 

coal oil gas 

Straw  grows  from 

trees fish .oats 

A Roar  is 

muddy .loud tall 

Haste  is 

hurry red. little.  . . 

A man  is  Afloat  in  a 

mine tower hospital . 

A Guitar  is  used  to  make 

toys glass music.  . . . 

A Mellow  apple  is 

br  ight sof  t dark 

Impolite  people  are 

ill-bred kindly. brave.  . . . 

Plumbing  is  made  of 

pipes rubber glass.  . . . 

Noticeable  things  are 

round plain little.  . . 

A Muzzle  is  often  put  on 

snakes men dogs 

To  Quake  is  to . 

sneer laugh cry 

A Reception  is  a 

party show game 

Majesty  refers  to 

dresses kings countries 

A Treasury  is  used  to  keep 

horses chickens money 

To  Misuse  is  to 

save throw crush.  . . . 

To  Crunch  is  to 

burn whirl tear 

A Forfeit  is  a 

gift valley penalty.  . 

A Sportive  person  is 

wild gay bold. .... 


hornet 

trash 

potatoes 

soft 

sweet 

boat 

furniture 

green 

young 

fruit 

brave 

kites 

tremble 

sleep 

climates 

snakes 

abuse 

crush 

f ind 

cruel 


186 


SI. 

Apish  people  are 

silly 

.cruel 

.wise 

23. 

To  Snip  is  to 

sew 

.paste 

. t ie 

33, 

A Shrewd  man  is 

weak 

.dull 

. sharp 

24. 

To  Repose  means  to 

snore 

. sleep 

.dream 

25. 

A Peculiarity  is  < 

a 

singularity. . . . 

.c ircuit 

.debacle 

26. 

A Conscientious  man  is 

dust 

. consc ienceless 

.obedient 

27. 

A Charter  is* a 

map 

.grant 

28. 

Coinage  refers  to 

seignior 

.bonds 

.currency 

29. 

A Dilapidated  thing  is 

laminated 

.complete 

. subj  ected. .... 

30. 

A Promontory  is  a 

nroi  eot ion 

.uromoter 

. incognito 

31. 

Avarice  is  shown  by 

egotism 

.covetousness. . 

.altruism 

32. 

Gelatinous  things 

are 

coot ile 

. round 

. j ellied 

33. 

To  Drabble  is  to 

exc ite 

.crowd 

. twaddle 

34. 

A Philanthropy  is 

a 

rel  igion 

.creed 

.philander . . . . . 

35. 

Irony  is 

slander 

.metal 

. sat  ire 

36. 

To  Embody  is  to 

blend 

. incorporate . . . 

.repudiate 

37. 

To  Swaddle  is  to 

swathe 

.waddle 

.bungle ........ 

38. 

Exaltation  is 

intoxication. . . 

. exhalation. . . . 

.admonition. . . . 

39. 

To  Infuse  is  to 

confuse 

.fuse . . . • 

. inspire 

40. 

A Selectman  is  a 

confederate .... 

.off  icer . 

.conspirator . . . 

41. 

A Declivity  is  a 

slope 

.decent 

. deter iorat ion . 

. .hill 

42. 

The  Laity  are  the 

people 

.clergy 

. elders 

als 

43. 

A Fen  is  a 

upland 

.bushland 

44. 

To  be  Sapient  is 

to  be 

savory 

. sardonic 

.wise 

45. 

A Cameo  is  a 

photograph 

.animal 

.dance 

46. 

Theosophy  is  a philosophy  of 

transmigration. .revelation 


nature 


predest ina- 
t.  ion 


♦ » 

. 

... 

. 

. - . :1 

- 


. ■■ 


. . . 


£ 

• ■ . . . 9 

. .. 




■ ...  

i 

• * ■.  » - 


187 


47. 

Precipitancy 
prec ision . 

implies 

48. 

Paleology  is 
fossils . . . 

the  study  of 

. . . stones 

49. 

A Homunculus 
homo tonus . 

is  a 

50. 

A Limpet  is  a 
shell-f ish 

correct 

incorrect 

omitted 

score 

. 

. 

, i 

. 

. 


Schedule  F 


Name 


188 


Mental  Survey  Tests— Primer  Scale 

Test  VI 

(For  Grades  I to  IV) 

Grade 


Age 


DOT  PATTERN  TEST 


* 

• * 
• * 
• * 


* 


* * * * 

* * * • 

* * * * 


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* * * * 

* * * * 

* * * * 


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* 


* 

* * 
* * 

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* 


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* * 


* * 


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* 


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* * 


* * 

* * * * 

* * * 


* * 

* * * 

* 

* * * 

* 


* 


* * * 

* * * 

* * * 

* 


* 

♦ 

****** 

* 

* 


* 

****** 

* 

* 


* 

* 


* * 


* * 

* * 

* * * 


* 

* 


* * * 
* * 

* 


* 

* * * 

* * * * 

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* * * 

* 

* * 

* * * 


* * * 

* * * * 

* * * * 

* * 


* 

* 


* 

* 

* * 

* * * 


* * 

***** 

* * 


Indiana  University 

DEPARTMENT  OF  PSYCHOLOGY 


IL  CLASSIFICATION  TEST 


form  board  test 


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IV.  ABSURDITIES 


189 


Test  VII 

(For  Grades  V to  VIII) 


(Solve  as  many  of  these  problems  as  you  can  in  eight  minutes.) 


1.  The  boys'  team  scored  67  and  the  girls'  77.  By  how  much 

did  the  girls  win?  Answer  ( ) 

2.  Mother  had  15  eggs.  She  sold  6 and  then  gathered  9 more. 

How  many  had  she  then?  Answer  ( ) 

3.  If  2 collars  cost  25  cents  how  much  must  be  paid  for  a 

half  dozen?  Answer  ( ) 

4.  If  a man  receives  $3.20  per  day  of  8 hours,  how  much  is 

he  paid  by  the  hour?  Answer  ( ) 

5.  If  a pencil  costs  2c  and  is  sold  for  3c  what  is  the  per- 
cent of  gain?  Answer  ( ) 

6.  If  I paid  50  cents  for  railroad  fare  and  65  cents  for 

dinner,  how  much  change  will  I receive  from  a two-dollar 
bill?  Answer  ( ) 

7.  How  many  pencils  can  you  buy  for  40c  at  the  rate  of  3 

for  10c?  Answer  ( ) 

8.  If  a boy  sells  4 papers  to  make  5c,  how  many  papers  will 

he  have  to  sell  to  make  25c?  Answer  ( ) 

9.  John  paid  $3  for  seed,  $4  for  plowing,  $3  for  planting 
an  acre  of  corn.  He  sold  his  crop  for  $120.  How  much 
money  has  he  left  if  he  paid  all  expenses  and  $5  for 

rent?  Answer  ( ) jj 

10.  If  4 men  can  do  a piece  of  work  in  6 days,  how  long 

will  it  take  12  men?  Answer  ( ) 

11.  I bought  a horse  for  $96  and  sold  it  at  a gain  of 

25$.  How  much  money  did  I gain?  Answer  ( ) j 

12.  What  is  the  interest  on  $1000  at  65  for  1 yr.  6 mo.? 

Answer  ( ) 

13.  A man  spent  3/4  of  his  money  and  had  $8  left.  How  much 

had  he  at  first?  Answer  ( ) 


ISO 


14.  It  takes  8 ounces  of  flour  to  make  one  10-cent  loaf  of 

bread.  How  many  loaves  could  be  made  from  200  lbs.  of 
flour7  Answer  ( ) 

15.  If  $225  is  divided  between  A & 3 so  that  B receives 

$25  more  than  A,  how  much  does  A receive?  Answer  ( ) 

16.  In  Indiana  the  cost  of  macadam  road  is  shared  by  the 

town,  county,  and  state.  The  state  pays  1/6,  the  coun- 
ty 1/6,  and  the  town  the  remainder.  If  the  state  pays 
$1300,  what  does  the  town  pay?  Answer  ( ) 

17.  I leave  home  at  7:30  and  travel  6 3/4  hrs . At  what 

hour  do  I arrive?  Answer  ( ) 

18.  If  2 7/8  barrels  of  flour  cost  $33,  what  will  6 1/4 

barrels  cost  at  the  same  rate?  Answer  ( ) 

19.  The  rations  of  a soldier  are  11/4  lbs.  of  bread  per 
day  and  4/5  as  much  meat.  Owing  to  the  loss  of  a ship, 
the  supply  of  meat  was  reduced  one-half.  How  much  meat 

did  each  soldier  receive  per  day?  Answer  ( ) 

20.  A car  of  wheat  containing  93,500  lbs.  is  found  to  be 
loaded  1/9  over  the  permitted  load.  How  many  pounds 

must  be  removed?  Answer  ( ) 


191 


Test  VIII 

(For  Grades  V to  VIII) 


(Solve  as  many  of  these  problems  as  you  can  in  five  minutes.) 

1.  How  many  are  30  men  and  7 men?  Answer  ( ) 

3.  If  you  save  $6  a month  for  5 months,  how  much  money  will 

you  save?  Answer  ( ) 

3.  If  34  men  are  divided  into  squads  of  8,  how  many  squads 

will  there  be?  Answer  ( ) 

4.  Mike  had  11  cigars.  He  bought  3 more  and  then  smoked  6. 

How  many  cigars  did  he  have  left?  Answer  ( ) 

5.  An  army  advanced  5 miles  and  retreated  3 miles.  How  far 

was  it  then  from  its  first  position?  Answer  ( ) 

6.  How  many  hours  will  it  take  a truck  to  go  48  miles  at  the 

rate  of  4 miles  an  hour?  Answer  ( ) 

7.  How  many  pencils  can  you  buy  for  50  cents  at  the  rate  of 

3 for  5 cents?  Answer  ( ) 

8.  A man  walked  40  miles  in  five  days.  The  first  day  he 
walked  9 miles,  the  second  day  6 miles,  the  third  10 
miles,  the  fourth  8 miles.  How  many  miles  did  he  walk 

the  last  day?  Answer  ( ) 

9.  If  you  buy  3 packages  of  tobacco  at  8 cents  each  and  a 
pipe  for  55  cents,  how  much  change  should  you  get  from 

a two-dollar  bill?  Answer  ( ) 

10.  If  it  takes  6 men  3 days  to  build  a 180-foot  wall,  how 

many  men  are  needed  to  build  it  in  half  a day?  Answer  ( ) 

11.  A dealer  bought  some  mules  for  $800.  He  sold  them  for 
$1000,  making  $40  on  each  mule.  How  many  mules  were 

there?  Answer  ( ) 

13.  A rectangular  bin  holds  400  cubic  feet  of  lime.  If  the 
bin  is  10  feet  long  and  5 feet  deep,  how  wide  is  it? 

Answer  ( ) 

13.  A girl  spends  one-eighth  of  her  snare  change  for  post 
cards  and  four  times  as  much  for  a box  of  letter  paper 
and  then  has  90  cents  left.  How  much  money  did  she 
have  at  first7  Answer  ( ) 


193 


14.  If  3-g-  tons  of  coal  co3t  $31,  what  will  5^  tons  cost? 

Answer  ( ) 

15.  A ship  has  provisions  to  last  her  crew  of  500  men  6 

months.  How  long  will  it  last  1200  men?  Answer  ( ) 

16.  If  a man  runs  a hundred  yards  in  10  seconds,  how  many  feet 

does  he  run  in  one-fifth  of  a second?  Answer  ( ) 

17.  A U-boat  makes  10  miles  an  hour  under  -rater  and  20  miles 
on  the  surface.  How  long  will  it  take  it  to  cross  a 
100-mile  channel  if  it  has  to  go  three-fourths  of  the 

way  under  water?  Answer  ( ) 

18.  If  214  men  are  to  build  4066  yeards  of  pavement,  how 

many  yards  must  be  built  by  each  man?  Answer  ( ) 

19.  A certain  business  employs  3000  men,  15,000  women,  and 
1000  boys.  If  the  business  is  expanded  proportionately 
until  there  are  in  all  19,800  people,  how  many  men  will 

be  added?  Answer  ( ) 

30.  A commission  house  which  has  already  supplied  1,897 

barrels  of  apples  to  a community  delivered  the  remain- 
der of  its  stock  to  28  dealers.  Of  this  remainder  each 
dealer  received  47  barrels,  what  was  the  total  number 
of  barrels  supplied?  Answer  ( ) 


193 


Appendix  B - Standardized  Tests  Used  at  Danville 

A detailed  description  of  the  reading  tests  by  Monroe 
and  the  arithmetic  tests  by  Woody  is  omitted  from  this  report. 
We  have  included,  therefore,  only  such  of  the  tests  used  as  have 
not  appeared  in  print,  in  the  form  used. 


194 


Test  in  History 

The  test  in  history  consists  of  ten  informational  questions 
taken  from  Buckingham's  list.  These  questions  were  selected  with 
reference  (a)  to  the  progressive  difficulty  for  the  different 
grades  as  expressed  in  the  percent  answering  correctly  and  (b)  with 
reference  to  the  range  of  these  percentages.  Accompanying  the  ques- 
tions which  follow,  the  figures  show  the  percent  of  correct  answers 
in  each  grade  as  has  been  determined  by  the  author  of  this  test  in 


previous  testing. 


No. 

Question 

Percent  of  Correct 

Answers 

Seventh 

Low 

Gra-de 
Hi  ah 

Eighth 

Low 

Grade 

High 

1 

Jl  • 

What  tract  of  land  was  pur- 
chased by  the  United  States 
during  Jefferson's  adminis- 
tration? 

58 .6 

77.3 

85.4 

83.4 

3. 

At  about  what  time  was  the 
first  message  sent  by  tele- 
graph ? 

44.5 

53.0 

64.7 

71.4 

3. 

What  political  party  came 
into  power  in  1801? 

38.8 

44.9 

64.0 

70.0 

4. 

What  is  the  main  purpose 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine? 

34.3 

31.5 

53.0 

59.4 

5. 

In  general,  what  was  the 
attitude  of  England  toward 
the  South  during  the  Civil 
War? 

53.4 

59.0 

66.0 

80.9 

6. 

To  what  section  of  the  Un- 
ited States  does  the  Ord- 
nance of  1787  apply? 

39.1 

34.9 

63.8 

67.9 

7. 

Give  the  substance  of  one 
amendment  to  the  Constitu- 
tion made  as  a result  of 
the  Civil  War? 

49.5 

58.6 

64.0 

86.7 

8. 

What  problem  arose  when  Kar 
sas  applied  for  admission 
to  the  Union? 

L — 

14.7 

30.1 

39.9 

53.8 

* 


195 


9. 

What  is  the  provision  of  the 
Constitution  regarding  the 
number  of  members  in  the 
Senate? 

31.7 

36.4 

50.4 

61.2 

10. 

Name  three  American  generals 
in  the  Revolutionary  War. 

38.5 

47.9 

55.2 

59,6 

Test  in  Spelling 

January  1919  Grade  III 

1.  The  wagon  belongs  to  the  boy. 

2.  He  ate  too  much  cheese  for  supper . 

3.  I may  send  the  sick  girl  a peach  and  an  orange . 

4.  He  saw  the  queen  corning  down  the  stairs . 

5.  I shall  give  the  dog  a bone. 

6.  On  the  way  home  he  had  to  pass  the  office. 

7.  Please  read  me  the  story. 

8.  The  man  in  the  water  could  not  reach  the  pole . 

9.  A goose  has  only  two  feet. 

10.  In  the  summer  we  can  hear  the  birds  sing. 

11.  The  house  stands  on  the  hill. 


January  1919  Grade  IV 

1.  I bought  a picture  of  a canoe  for  a penny . 

2.  He  will  get  here  this  evening  before  eight  o* clock . 

3.  The  ocean  was  very  rough . 

4.  He  gave  a cheerful  answer . 

5.  Be  sure  to  watch  the  curtain . 

6.  I am  hungry  for  some  oysters . 

7.  The  fairy  always  comes  in  the  night. 


196 


8.  Truly,  j heard  the  strange  voice ♦ 

9.  The  echo  repeats  the  words. 

10.  The  boy  is  get  ting  his  lesson. 

11.  I know  where  to  buy  the  best  leather . 


January  1919  Grade  V 

1.  You  ought  not  to  wear  that  style  of  collar. 

3.  The  captain  and  his  nephew  made  the  voyage  together . 

3.  The  butcher  has  nice  veal  cnops. 

4.  The  animal  was  caught  in  the  trap. 

5.  She  took  the  cabbage  and  the  onion  into  the  kitchen . 

6.  I shall  not  see  you  again  until  Wednesday. 

7.  Which  man  did  you  believe? 

8.  She  covered  the  dried  apples  with  a cloth. 

9.  The  men  did  not  dare  to  touch  the  fierce  lion. 

10.  The  boy  continued  to  be  regular  in  his  work. 


January  1919  Grade  VI 

1.  He  will  receive  a telegram  from  the  society . 

2.  That  grocery  has  a big  business . 

3.  At  recess  they  took  a ride  on  the  sleigh . 

4.  Electricity  is  the  source  of  power  for  the  trolley. 

5.  Since  he  is  so  hoarse . he  should  take  medicine . 

6.  They  decided  to  sing  the  old  college  hymns . 

7.  Neither  his  daughter  nor  his  niece  knew  of  his  absence . 

8.  The  charge  against  the  man  forced  him  to  resign . 

9.  The  anxious  mother  waited  for  the  mailman's  whistle . 

10.  He  stumbled  over  a loose  board  and  bruised  his  knee. 

11.  His  di scoveri es  made  him  famous. 


; * .•  Wt  E 


. 


» 


197 


January  1919  Grade  VII 

1.  The  mosquito  is  responsible  for  yellow  fever. 

2.  The  attorney  concealed  his  ignorance ♦ 

3.  The  vegetable  was  delicious . 

4.  The  calculation  in  the  almanac  was  wrong. 

5.  It  was  apparent  that  the  poor  wretch  was  grateful . 

6.  The  emperor  owns  an  elegant  yacht . 

7.  The  mysterious  character  won  a medal  for  bravery. 

8.  The  experi ence  of  the  volunteer  made  him  appreciate  the  story. 

9.  When  he  attempted  to  interfere,  they  dropped  the  proceedings. 
10.  The  piece  of  changeable  silk  slipped  from  the  counter. 


January  1919  Grade  VIII 

1.  Ke  is  a well  known  physician  and  surgeon . 

2.  They  decorated  the  house  with  mistletoe . 

3.  The  treachery  of  the  financier  was  soon  discovered. 

4.  The  colonel  did  not  di sapp cint  his  men. 

5.  The  architecture  of  the  building  was  exquisite. 

6.  He  is  a man  of  independent  resources . 

7.  She  wore  a peculiar  pair  of  glasses  with  tortoise  shell  rims. 

8.  Gasoline  did  not  make  the  grease  spot  disappear . 

9.  The  distillery  was  in  a separate  building. 

10.  The  child  offered  the  dog  a morsel  of  banana . 

11.  He  did  not  lose  his  accuracy . 

12.  On  that  occasion,  everyone  noticed  his  resemblance  to  his 
father . 


13. 


The  work  proved  beneficial  in  the  siege . 


«■ 

198 

The  underlined  words  in  the  foregoing  sentences  were  se- 
lected from  a large  list  which  had  been  standardized  by  Dr.  Buck- 
ingham in  connection  with  his  well  known  work  in  spelling. 

The  range  used  by  us  in  making  this  selection  is  60.1  to  67.9  per- 
cent. Only  words  that  showed  progressive  difficulty  for  the  dif- 
ferent grades  are  included.  The  only  exception  to  this  rule  is 
the  word  "siege"  which  shows  a slight  reversion  in  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades.  The  list  of  words  by  grades  and  the  percents  of 
pupils  spelling  each  word  in  the  respective  grades  (3  to  8)  are 
given  below.  If  a word  appeared  in  more  than  one  grade,  it  was 
assigned  under  the  lowest  grade  in  which  the  percent  spelling  it 
correctly  fell  within  the  range  selected.  The  range  was  selected 
arbitrarily  as  that  which,  in  our  judgment,  would  give  us  a suf- 
ficient number  of  words  and  which  would  measure  every  pupil  who 
belonged  in  the  respective  grades. 


Grade  III 

Grade 

IV 

Percent  60.1 

belongs  Percent 

6C.2 

getting 

60.3 

pass 

60.5 

answer 

60.7 

orange 

60.7 

curtain,  always 

60.8 

cheese 

60.8 

repeats 

61.1 

goose 

61.0 

know 

61.2 

office 

61.8 

truly 

61.3 

stairs,  peach 

62.3 

watch 

61.7 

summer 

62.4 

evening 

62.1 

wagon 

62.8 

canoe,  watch 

62.2 

only 

63.0 

leather 

53.1 

read 

63.3 

o'clock,  strange 

64.5 

send 

63.5 

rough 

64.6 

bone,  hear 

64.2 

cheerful 

64.8 

coming 

64.3 

picture 

65.6 

shall 

64.5 

hungry 

65.9 

queen 

64.7 

penny 

66 . 3 

reach 

65.9 

sure 

66.6 

stands,  story 

66. 3 

echo 

67.1 

pole 

66.6 

fairy 

67.3 

much 

66.8 

oyster 

67.5 

water 

67.1 

before 

67.6 

supper 

67.3 

ocean 

Total 

35  words 

Total 

25  words 

Buckingham,  B.  R.  Spelling  ability.  Its  measurement  and  dis- 


* 


199 

Grade  V 

Grade  VI 

Percent 

60.4 

fierce  Percent 

60.5 

bruised 

60.8 

continued 

60.8 

resign,  electricity 

60.9 

together 

61.1 

discoveries 

61.1 

wear,  regular 

61.7 

medicine,  recess. 

61.5 

touch 

receive 

61.9 

onion 

62.6 

hoarse 

62.0 

dried,  until 

63.9 

neither 

62.6 

collar 

63.0 

anxious 

63.0 

caught 

63.2 

society 

63 . 6 

covered,  voyage 

64.0 

deceit 

63.8 

kitchen 

64.1 

business,  absence 

64.2 

believe 

64.4 

source,  college,  loose 

64.4 

veal 

64.7 

whistle 

65.1 

captain 

64.8 

against 

65.6 

which 

64.9 

niece 

66.3 

Wednesday 

65.2 

sleigh 

66.5 

animal,  cabbage. 

65.5 

hymn 

ought 

66.1 

grocery 

66 . 6 

butcher 

67.2 

telegram 

66.7 

st  yle 

66 . 9 

nephew 

Total 

25  words 

Total 

35  words 

Grade  VII 

Grade  VIII 

Percent 

60.4 

experience 

60,1 

physician 

60.7 

mosquito,  attorney 

60.4 

tortoise 

60.8 

apparent 

60 , 8 

siege 

61.1 

responsible 

61.3 

resemblance 

61.3 

volunteer 

61.7 

grease 

61.5 

medal 

51. S 

banana 

61.7 

appreciate 

63.0 

architecture 

61.9 

mysterious 

63.4 

disappear 

63.0 

yacht 

63.3 

loose 

63.0 

vegetable 

63.4 

mistletoe 

63.4 

calculation 

63.7 

disappoint 

63.8 

interfere,  almanac 

64.0 

colonel 

63.9 

character 

64.3 

financier,  beneficial 

64.5 

ignorance,  emperor 

64.6 

occasion 

65.2 

changeable 

65.0 

distillery 

66.5 

dropped 

65.4 

resources 

65.9 

concealed,  grateful 

65.7 

treachery 

67.3 

delicious 

65.9 

surgeon 

67.4 

elegant 

67.3 

separate 

67.5 

wretch,  slipped 

67.4 

morsel,  accuracy 

67.5 

independent 

67.8 

peculiar 

67.9 

exquisite 

Total 

25  words 

Total 

25  words 

tribution.  (Teachers  College  Contributions 
Columbia  University,  New  York. 

to  Education  No.  59, 

' 


200 


Standard  Test  in  Geography 

(The  following  test  is  STEP  Q in  the  Hahn-Lackey  Geogra- 
phy Scale.  The  same  questions  are  to  he  given  to  all  the  grades 
tested  in  geography  and  the  percent  scores  given  below  are  the 
standard  performance  scores  for  the  different  grades.  4th  ready 
for  5th  is  43;  5th  ready  for  6th  is  58;  6th  ready  for  7th  is  66; 
7th  ready  for  8th  is  79.  Standard  score  for  8th  grade  is  79.) 

1.  Name  four  four-bearing  animals. 

2.  Name  four  large  rivers  in  Europe. 

3.  What  two  countries  of  Asia  are  noted  for  tea? 

4.  Give  the  capitals  of  Colorado  and  Massachusetts. 

5.  Name  two  kinds  of  food  that  we  get  from  animals. 

6.  From  what  country  do  we  get  much  of  our  coffee? 

7.  Which  is  the  largest  and  which  is  the  smallest,  the  moon,  the 
sun,  or  the  earth? 

8.  What  country  of  South  America  has  a climate  similar  to  ours? 

9.  Why  is  it  warmer  in  New  Orleans  than  in  Chicago? 

10.  Why  are  camels  such  useful  animals  for  traveling  in  desert 
places? 

11.  What  is  the  cause  of  day  and  night? 

12.  What  do  the  rivers  do  with  the  soil  that  they  carry? 

Directions . The  pupils  are  to  be  given  a chance  to  an- 
swer the  whole  list  of  12  questions.  The  individual  score  will  be 
the  percent  of  all  the  questions  the  pupil  answers  correctly. 

For  ease  in  scoring,  each  question  will  be  given  the 
value  of  8 percent  and  each  part  will  be  a proportionat e part  of 
the  value  of  the  whole  question.  For  example,  each  animal  named 
correctly, of  the  four  called  for  in  the  first  question,  will  count 
two  toward  the  total  score. 


' 


. 


201 


' 

Any  answer  will  be  taken  as  correct  if  it  contains  facts 
that  will  satisfy  or  meet  what  is  called  for  in  the  questions. 

Comment ♦ Step  Q was  chosen  because  the  scores  for  the 
different  grades  show  a fairly  even  gradation  of  difficulty  as  com- 
pared  with  any  other  step  of  this  scale.  The  questions  have  a 
wide  range  both  as  to  the  nature  of  subject-matter  and  as  to  coun- 
tries included.  There  is  a balance  of  thought-questions  and  of 
factual-questions.  And  the  scores  compare  favorably  with  the 
scores  selected  in  other  standard  tests  selected  for  other  subjects 
and  indicate  that  the  questions  are  not  too  hard  to  allow  a decent 
score  and  yet  no  pupil  will  likely  get  all  the  answers  correct. 


. 


- 


203 


Appendix  D,  Forms  Used 


The  following 
compiling  the  same 


forms  were  used  in  gathering  the  data  and 
for  the  individual  pupils. 


Form  E-R-6 

Citv  School  Grade  Teacher  Date  1920 

No.  belonging  to  grade  last  dav  of  Semester  No.  Recommended  for  promotion  Per  Cent  Promoted 

Pupils  Recommended  for  Promotion 

Names 

(Last  names  first  and  in  alphabetical  order. 
Give  the  names  of  boys  first.  Skip  no  lines.) 

Probation  (Check) 

Date 

of 

Birth 
e.  g. 
1-25-01 

No.  Sem.  in  School 

No.  Sem.  in  This  Grade 

Health  (G.  F.  or  P ) 

Final  Scholastic  Rating 
By  Subjects 

Reading 

Arithmetic 

Language 

Geography 

History 

Spelling 

Average 

i 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

* 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

. 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 

29 

30 

31 

32 

33 

34 

35 

36 

37 

38 

■ 


I 


1 


203 


Pupils  Not  Recommended  for  Promotion 

Causes  of  Non-Promotion 
Rank  1,  2,  3;  1 being  most  important 

sjootps 

psSuriQ 

SUOUipUCQ 
JCIDOg  aooj 

sptuuiv 

jidnj  guoj^ 

X[[KJU3J^[ 

3AI}D3J3Q 

uoqipucQ  jUDIS 

-Xqj  3AU33J3Q 

3DUBpU344  V 
JBjn§3JJJ 

suoqipuo^ 
3UI°H  JOOcI 

Ratings  in  Standard  Tests 

Final  Scholastic  Rating 
By  Subjects 

Suiipds 

Ajojsij^ 

Al|dtUg03r) 

3St;n8uBq 

DU3Ull|4UV 

Suipuajj 

( d J E» 

apB-ia  ui  sjaisauiag 

|OOip§  UI  SJ9}S3UI9S 

Date 

of 

Birth 
e.  g. 
1/2S/01 

Names 

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PART  II  DEVICES  USED  TO  AID  PUPILS 

Week 

o°  | 

CO 

*-0 

CO 

<N 

- 

Devices 

Visits  to  pupil’s  home 

Other  interviews  with  parents 

Help  outside  of  school  hours 

Varying  the  course  of  study 

Varying  the  teaching  method 

Using  pupil  co-operation 

Daily  reports  to  parents 

Sending  home  pupil’s  work 

PART  I SCHOLASTIC  RECORD 

Week 

CO 

r- 

cO 

CO 

(N 

- 

a! 

Subjects 

Reading 

Arithmetic 

Language 

Geography 

History 

Spelling 

Average 

peS 


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a; 


I Retained  \ 

For  directions  see  back  of  card  Demoted/  Superintendent 


206 


*Enter  bv  Code  Mnmh^r  Pntf.irifr  Vr>v  -in  ,,Rp.m.<iT'lr<5  ” 


VITA 


Henry  Theodore  McKinney,  fourth  son  of  James  H.  and 
Minerva  Jane  McKinney  was  born  July  17,  IS 79,  near  Hudgens, 
Illinois.  His  early  education  was  obtained  in  the  public  schools 
of  Williamson  County  and  the  Normal  School  at  Carbondale.  He 
later  attended  Valparaiso  University  (B.  S.  04),  University  of 
Colorado,  University  of  Chicago  and  University  of  Illinois  (A.  B. 
13;  M.  A.  15)  . 

He  has  been  continuously  engaged  in  educational  work 
since  he  began  his  career  as  teacher  in  the  year  1899.  He  taught 
4 years  in  the  rural  schools  of  his  home  county.  During  the  next 
8 years,  he  worked  one  year  as  principal  of  a ward  school,  one 
year  as  principal  of  high  school  and  six  years  as  superintendent 
at  Herrin,  Illinois.  Then,  after  attending  the  University  of 
Illinois  two  years  including  intervening  summer  terms,  he  was  for 
4 years  superintendent  of  city  schools  and  principal  of  the  town- 
ship  high  school  at  Gibson  City,  Illinois.  He  returned  to  the 
University  to  take  up  his  work  again  in  the  graduate  school  in  the 
fall  of  1917.  He  has  written  several  articles  for  magazines  and 
for  several  years  has  lectured  to  teachers  in  county  institutes 
and  other  meetings.  Since  the  fall  of  1920,  he  has  been  super- 
intendent of  schools  in  Aurora,  Illinois. 


